BHHK 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 


STUDIES  IN  THE 
SCIENCE  OF  RELIGION 


BY  GEORGE  A.  COE,  PH.D. 

I) 

John  Evans  Professor  of  Moral  and  Intellectual  Philosophy 
in  Northwestern  University 


UNIVERSITY 
CALIFO* 


NEW  YORK  :  EATON  &  MAINS 

CINCINNATI  :  JENNINGS  &  PYE 

1900 


Copyright  by 

EATON  &  MAINS, 

1900. 


EATON  &  MAINS  PRESS, 
150  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York. 


TO 

S.  E.  C. 

"  '  Twos  nothing  that  I  can  phrase, 

But  the  whole  dumb  dwelling  grew  conscious, 

And  put  on  her  looks  and  ways."" 


82903 


PREFACE 


THE  studies  here  presented  have  been  undertaken 
in  response  to  a  conviction  that,  in  the  interest  of 
both  science  and  religion,  a  new  intellectual  attitude 
is  necessary  with  respect  to  the  facts  of  the  spiritual 
life.  The  religious  processes  taking  place  around 
us  and  within  us  must  be  observed  with  all  the  pre- 
cision that  modern  psychological  methods  and  tools 
render  possible.  For,  whatever  else  religion  may 
or  may  not  be,  it  is  at  least  a  mass  of  ascertainable 
states  of  consciousness ;  and  in  the  absence  of  infor- 
mation to  the  contrary  we  must  presume  that  such 
states  can  be  analyzed  and  described,  and  that  their 
relations  to  one  another  and  to  the  recognized  laws 
of  the  mental  and  bodily  life  can  be  to  some  extent 
determined.  What  is  needed  is  an  examination  of 
the  facts  as  such,  without  reference  to  their  possible 
bearing  upon  theology  or  philosophy.  Until  this 
work  is  done  there  will  remain  an  important  gap  in 
the  scientific  knowledge  of  man.  For,  clearly,  it  is 
the  humanity  that  now  is  that  gives  us  our  problems 
concerning  man's  origin  and  development,  and  that 
necessarily  controls  and  tests  our  hypotheses.  Simi- 

5 


PREFACE 

larly,  knowledge  of  what  religion  now  is  must  be  the 
most  illuminating  factor  in  any  satisfactory  science 
of  religion. 

Religious  propagandism  also  has  a  decisive  motive 
for  seeking  to  understand  the  religious  conscious- 
ness of  to-day.  Ignorance  is  sometimes  power,  it  is 
true,  but,  on  the  whole,  the  safer  course  in  a  good 
cause  is  to  trust  in  knowledge.  Moreover,  aside 
from  this  general  motive  there  is  special  need  for 
the  kind  of  knowledge  here  in  question.  Current 
events  are  forcing  upon  thoughtful  minds  in  all  the 
Protestant  Churches  a  suspicion,  if  not  a  conviction, 
that  what  has  claimed  a  peculiar  right  to  the  name 
"evangelical,"  both  in  piety  and  in  modes  of  propa- 
gating the  Gospel,  has  not  fully  solved  its  own  chosen 
problems.  There  is  reason  for  doubting  whether 
even  the  spiritual,  teachers  and  guides  of.  the  people 
really  grasp  the  mental  processes  with  which  they 
have  to  deal.  Training  in  doctrine,  in  philosophy, 
in  history,  and  even  in  the  questions  of  the  day,  con- 
stitutes only  a  logical  equipment ;  there  is  still  neces- 
sary a  psychological  equipment  in  order  that  one 
may  appreciate  the  vast  mass  of  mental  states  and 
processes  of  a  nonlogical  sort.  The  evident  decay 
of  the  revival,  the  alienation  from  the  Church  of 
whole  classes  of  the  population,  the  excess  of  women 
over  men  in  Church  life,  the  apparent  powerlessness 
of  organized  religion  to  suppress  or  seriously  check 

the  great  organized  vices  and  injustices  of  society* 

6 


PREFACE 

the  failure  of  the  Sunday  school  to  make  the  people 
or  even  its  own  pupils  familiar  with  the  contents  of 
the  Bible — these  facts  ought  to  raise  a  question  as  to 
what,  among  the  matters  upon  which  we  have  laid 
stress,  is  really  practical  and  what  mere  ignorant 
blundering. 

This  question  is  already  being  raised,  and  it  is 
bound  to  be  asked  more  and  more  often  and  in  louder 
and  louder  tones.  It  is  no  sign  of  enmity  toward  the 
Church  or  of  coldness  toward  Christianity,  but  rather 
an  incident  of  the  expanding  spirituality  of  men  who 
find  in  Jesus  the  final  meaning  of  life,  and  in  evan- 
gelical Christianity  the  essential  germ  of  future  re- 
ligious progress.  This  germ  demands  to  be  under- 
stood. It  is  necessary  to  perceive  that  the  problems 
here  suggested  do  not  concern  matters  of  mere  tem- 
porary expediency.  They  go  to  the  bottom  of  life; 
they  concern  the  very  essence  of  religion,  of  reli- 
gious forces,  and  of  the  mind  in  which  religion 
lives  and  through  which  it  works  for  the  healing 
of  the  nations.  If  this  be  true  there  is  not  a  ray 
of  reasonable  hope  for  the  solution  of  these  prob- 
lems unless  in  some  way — either  by  a  happy  hit 
of  uninstructed  zeal  or  else  by  definite  knowledge  of 
the  psychical  factors  involved — we  manage  to  put 
ourselves  into  line  with  the  mind  of  man  as  it  is. 

The  present  volume  does  not  undertake  to  solve 
these  problems,  much  less  to  present  a  systematic  or 
complete  treatment  of  the  general  psychology  of  reli- 

7 


PREFACE 

gion.  My  task  has  been  the  much  less  ambitious  one 
of  working  out  a  few  closely  related  groups  of  facts 
which  will  claim  a  place  in  the  systematic  psychology 
of  religion  when  this  comes  to  be  written,  and  which 
in  the  meantime  have  an  important  bearing  upon  the 
practical  side  of  religious  life  and  work.  While  I 
have  tried  to  approach  the  facts  in  the  spirit  and  by 
the  methods  of  science,  I  have  not  hesitated  to  point 
out  in  each  chapter  some  of  the  practical  uses  to 
which  its  materials  and  results  may  be  put.  I  hope 
that  these  suggestions  will  show  where  to  look  for 
a  practical  solution  of  several  of  our  most  trouble- 
some problems. 

I  am  under  obligation  to  the  editors  of  The  Psy- 
chological Review  for  permission  to  reprint  in  Chap- 
ter III,  with  alterations  and  additions,  an  article  that 
was  published  in  the  September,  1899,  number  of 
that  journal. 

GEORGE  A.  COE. 

Evanston,  Illinois. 

8 


CONTENTS 


PREFACE Page  5 

INTRODUCTION 

THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  POINT  OF  VIEW 11-27 

The  Phenomena  of  Religion  Scientifically  Interest- 
ing, 1 1  ;  Application  of  Empirical  Methods  to  Present 
Religious  Phenomena,  12  ;  Psychology  and  the  Super- 
natural, 1 5  ;  Religious  Psychology  as  Equipment  for 
Religious  Work,  18;  The  Psychology  of  Religion  as  a 
Clew  to  Existing  Religious  Unrest,  23. 

CHAPTER   I 

A  STUDY  OF  RELIGIOUS  AWAKENING 29-55 

A  Relation  Exists  between  Religious  Development 
and  Physical  and  Mental  Growth,  29 ;  "  When  I  was  a 
Child  I  Thought  as  a  Child,"  31 ;  Mental  Character- 
istics of  Adolescence,  35 ;  Adolescence  and  Religious 
Awakening,  39 ;  Interpretations,  47 ;  Religious  Feel- 
ings of  Youth,  50;  A  Hint  for  the  Philosophy  of 
Religion,  52. 

CHAPTER   II 

A  STUDY  OF  SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES  . . .  56-103 

Spiritual  Culture  Must  Respect  Mental  Conditions, 
56 ;  Intellectual  Difficulties,  58 ;  The  Adolescent  Con- 
scielice,  67 ;  Religious  and  Moral  Effects  of  Nerve  Fa- 
tigue, 71;  Psychological  Aspects  of  Certain  Tempta- 
tions, 89 ;  The  Natural  History  Method  of  Handling 
Moral  and  Religious  Difficulties,  100. 

CHAPTER   III 
A  STUDY  OF  RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 104-150 

Need  for  an  Explanation  of  the  Heterogeneity  of 
Christian  Experience,  104 ;  Inadequate  Theories,  105 ; 
Method  of  the  Present  Investigation,  109 ;  Temperament 
9 


CONTENTS 

as  a  Factor  in  Striking  Religious  Transformations,  114; 
Relation  of  These  Experiences  to  Mental  and  Motor 
Automatisms,  121;  To  Suggestibility,  128;  Three 
Factors  Combined,  138;  Explanation  of  Trances,  Vis- 
ions, "  the  Power,"  etc.,  141 ;  Employment  of  Sugges- 
tion in  Revival  Meetings,  144. 

CHAPTER   IV 

A  STUDY  OF  DIVINE  HEALING 151-204 

Religion  Has  Some  Relation  to  Health,  151 ;  A  Bit 
of  History,  1 54 ;  The  Law  of  Mental  Healing  Stated 
and  Illustrated,  156;  Relation  of  Mental  Healing  to 
Hypnotism,  164;  A  Word  of  Warning,  169;  Mislead- 
ing Sensations,  173;  Limits  of  Mental  Healing,  177; 
Two  Misapprehensions,  180;  The  Scientific  Aspects 
of  Faith  Cure,  184;  The  Scientific  Aspects  of  Christian 
Science,  189;  Suggestion  and  Miracle,  200;  Hygienic 
and  Therapeutic  Value  of  the  Christian  Attitude  toward 
Life,  203. 

CHAPTER  V 

A  STUDY  OF  SPIRITUALITY 205-260 

The  Christian  Idea  of  Spiritual  Life  Has  Been 
Warped  into  Merely  Temperamental  Forms,  206; 
Psychological  Analysis  of  Sainthood,  208;  Spiritual 
Exercises,  214;  Some  Psychological  Aspects  of  Hym- 
nology,  219;  The  Spirituality  of  Prayer-Meeting  Songs, 
229  ;  Popular  Notions  of  Spirituality,  232 ;  The  "  Eter- 
nally Feminine  "  in  the  Church,  236 ;  Some  Results  of 
a  Temperamental  Interpretation  of  Christianity,  243; 
The  Fleeting  and  the  Permanent  in  Christian  Expe- 
rience, 252 ;  The  Mind  of  the  Master,  256. 

APPENDIX  A.    QUESTIONNAIRE   ON   RELIGIOUS   EX- 
PERIENCE   261 

APPENDIX  B.    PLAN  FOR  THE  OBSERVATION  OF  TEM- 
PERAMENT    272 

INDEX 277 

10 


INTRODUCTION 


The  Psychological  Point  of  View 

PERHAPS  no  group  of  ascertained  facts  excels  in 
either  theoretical  or  practical  interest  the  mass  of 
human  experiences  called  religious.  Clustering 
about  them  and  intertwined  with  them  are  all  the 
marvels,  real  and  alleged,  of  hypnotism,  telepathy, 
and  mediumship;  illusions  and  hallucinations  here 
acquire  their  greatest  power;  here  the  roots  of  the 
highest  reason  lie  side  by  side  with  those  of  the  low- 
est superstition.  Nor  do  religious  phenomena  lose 
their  psychological  importance  when  they  are  disen- 
tangled from  everything  that  is  abnormal,  for  they 
are  everywhere  present  in  human  life,  and  in  forms 
exceedingly  various.  In  some  of  these  forms  reli- 
gious experiences  are  rare,  sudden,  and  surprising; 
in  all  forms  they  reverberate  with  surprising  power 
and  permanence  through  the  entire  mental  organism. 

Yet  the  phenomena  of  religious  experience  have 
been  the  last  to  be  granted  a  hearing  by  the  science  of 
psychology.  Explorations  have  been  carried  on  in 
many  a  remote  and  obscure  region  of  the  mind  in 

apparent  unconsciousness  of  this  whole  mass  of  psy- 

ii 


INTRODUCTION 

chical  wonders  lying  at  the  door  of  the  psychologist's 
study.  <  Metaphysics  speculated  about  the  rational 
basis  of  religion ;  the  philosophy  of  religion  mingled 
these  speculations  with  some  slight  analysis  of  the 
states  of  mind  called  religious ;  theology  appealed,  in 
a  general  way,  to  religious  experience  in  verification 
of  its  theories;  the  history  and  science  of  religion 
rummaged  museums  of  anthropology  and  dug  about 
the  roots  of  language  in  order  to  discover  the  earliest 
forms  of  religion :  but  to  none  of  these  was  it  revealed 
that  the  surest  way  to  understand  religion  is  to  ob- 
serve its  present  manifestations.  What  was  still 
needed  was  the 

Application  of  Empirical  Methods  to  Present  Re- 
ligious Phenomena. 

Revival  pi  eachers  took  the  first  step  in  this  method 
when  they  gathered  statistics  concerning  the  age  at 
which  large  numbers  of  persons  were  converted.  It 
is  probable  that  this  incipient  application  of  scientific 
method  was  more  effective  in  awakening  sinners  than 
any  equal  amount  of  labor  expended  upon  theorizing 
or  arguing  in  the  absence  of  systematic  observation 
of  facts. 

The  first  comprehensive  and  organized  impulse  to 
a  scientific  study  of  the  religious  phenomena  in  the 
midst  of  which  we  are  living  made  its  appearance  in 
the  present  decade.  In  1891  President  G.  Stanley 
Hall,  of  Clark  University,  published  an  article  on  the 


12 


INTRODUCTION 

moral  and  religious  training  of  children1  based  di- 
rectly upon  the  psychology  of  childhood  and  adoles- 
cence. Several  pupils  of  his  followed  with  further 
observations  and  analyses.2  Especially  worthy  of 
mention  for  the  range  and  patient  impartiality  of  his 
work  is  E.  D.  Starbuck,3  now  of  Stanford  Univer- 
sity. It  would  be  easy  to  over  or  under  estimate  the 
value  of  the  results  thus  attained,  but  this  at  least 
may  be  claimed :  fyVe  have  here  the  crude  beginnings 
of  an  empirical  psychology  of  religious  experience. 

The  method  employed  by  these  workers  is,  first, 
to  secure  from  hundreds  of  persons  a  written  descrip- 
tion of  such  facts  as  their  conversion,  their  religious 
growth,  their  conception  of  God,  their  doubts,  etc.  / 
These  descriptions  are  then  analyzed,  and  the  results 
are  grouped  and  massed  in  various  ways  so  as  to  ex- 
hibit averages  and  tendencies  in  religious  life.  Some- 
what secure  results  have  thus  been  attained,  with  re- 
gard to  the  probability  of  conversion  at  various  ages, 
and  suggestive  material  concerning  motives,  feel- 
ings, doubts,  and  the  effects  of  various  influences. 

1  Pedagogical  Seminary,  5,  ig6ff. 

aA.  H.  Daniels,  "The  New  Life,"  in  American  Journal  of Psychology \  1893, 
vi,  6iff.;  J.  H.  Leuba,  "A  Study  in  the  Psychology  of  Religious  Phenomena," 
ibid.,  1896,  vii,  sogff.  See,  also,  Luther  Gulick,  "Age,  Sex,  and  Conversion,"  in 
Association  Outlook  for  December,  1897;  W.  H.  Burnham,  "  The  Study  of  Ado- 
lescence," in  Pedagogical  Seminary,  i,  2  ;  E.  G.  Lancaster,  "Psychology  and 
Pedagogy  of  Adolescence,"  in  Pedagogical  Seminary,  v,  i. 

S"A  Study  of  Conversion,"  in  American  Journal  of  Psychology,  1897,  viii, 
268ff.;  "Some  Aspects  of  Religious  Growth,"  ibid.,  ix,  yoff.;  The  Psychology  of 
Religion,  London,  1899,  PP-  xx.  423.  This  last  contribution  to  the  psychology  of 
religion  appears  as  these  studies  are  passing  through  the  press.  I  regret  that  I 
cannot  give  it  fuller  notice. 

2  13 


INTRODUCTION 

This  is  called  the  questionnaire  method.  That  it 
is  an  effective  way  of  getting  at  some  kinds  of  facts 
is  evident,  but  its  capacity  as  a  tool  for  investigation 
is  obviously  limited  to  such  facts  as  the  writers  of  the 
papers  are  competent  to  observe  and  describe  with 
scientific  accuracy.  The  average  person  of  intel- 
ligence is  qualified,  of  course,  to  testify  regarding 
the  more  external  facts  of  his  religious  experience, 
such  as  dates,  persons,  and  circumstances,  but  in  the 
absence  of  specific  training  in  self -observation  few 
persons  are  qualified  to  give  even  approximately  cor- 
rect information  regarding  the  subjective  processes 
that  constitute  their  religious  experience.  To  explain 
why  this  is  so  would  necessitate  a  larger  excursion 
into  general  psychology  than  is  possible  in  this  place. 
It  must  suffice  to  say  that  in  one's  own  mind,  just  as 
in  nature,  the  finer  differences,  so  important  when 
accuracy  is  in  question,  escape  attention  unless  the 
observer  has  been  trained  to  look  for  them ;  that  vari- 
ous processes  of  self -laudation,  of  self-excusing,  of 
self-condemning,  of  explanation,  of  accommodation 
to  the  opinions  of  others  or  of  revolt  from  such  opin- 
ions— all  these  so  mingle  with  the  facts  as  to  blur, 
suppress,  magnify,  and  distort  what  is  actually  going 
on  within;  that,  finally,  memory  has  many  peculiar 
and  very  effective  ways  of  falsely  representing  the 
past.  On  all  these  accounts  it  is  necessary,  when  the 
inner  history  is  in  question,  to  secure  some  corrective 

for  the  self-deceptions  that  may  easily  creep  into  the 

14 


INTRODUCTION 

narrative  of  the  most  honest  and,  in  other  matters, 
most  competent  witness.  The  present  studies  will 
illustrate  how  some  other  methods  of  investigation 
can  be  combined  with  that  which  rests  upon  question 
and  answer. 

Whatever  the  method  of  securing  and  analyzing 
the  data  may  be,  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  of 
the  necessity  of  going  for  information  directly  to  the 
facts  that  can  be  observed  here  and  now.  No  appeal 
to  the  Bible  can  answer  our  questions  unless  the 
Bible  is  a  book  of  science,  or  at  least  of  scientific  ob- 
servations. Happily  for  the  peace  and  progress  of 
investigations  in  the  sphere  of  religion,  we  are  com- 
ing to  understand  that  the  Scriptures  are  given  for 
instruction  in  righteousness,  not  for  instruction  in 
any  science,  even  psychology  and  the  science  of  re-  s 
ligion.  Data  for  all  the  sciences  of  man  we  certainly  ' 
find  there,  but  not  scientific  doctrines,  nor,  indeed, 
the  scientific  purpose  and  attitude.  The  Bible  is  a 
bank  rather  than  a  theory  of  finance;  it  is  religion 
rather  than  a  theory  of  religion.  The  way  is  open, 
then,  and  the  time  has  arrived  for  applying  to  the 
phenomena  of  the  religious  life  the  approved  meth- 
ods of  the  empirical  sciences. 

Psychology  and  the  Supernatural. 

The  proposal  to  apply  scientific  methods  to  the 
study  of  the  most  sacred  experiences  of  life  may  pos- 
sibly raise  the  question  whether  conversion  and  other 

15 


INTRODUCTION 

religious  phenomena  are  not  thereby  assumed  to  be 
purely  natural  occurrences  in  which  God  has  no  di- 
rect part.  (  Reduced  to  its  lowest  terms,  the  problem 
is  whether  the  empirical  method  of  getting  at  facts 
implies  that  such  facts  are  not  due  to  divine  influ- 
ences^ 

As  a  general  reply  it  might  be  sufficient  to  point 
out  that,  even  in  the  investigation  of  physical  facts, 
the  sciences  assume  nothing  whatever  as  to  the  pres- 
ence or  absence  of  God  in  nature.  If  we  may  assume 
that  winds  and  tides,  and  day  and  night,  do  not  occur 
hit-or-miss,  but  only  under  specific  circumstances — 
if  we  may  assume  that  the  world  is  a  cosmos  and 
not  a  chaos — we  may  be  indifferent,  as  scientific 
men,  as  to  whether  the  phenomena  of  nature  are  due 
to  divine  power  or  not.  What  science  looks  for  is 
law,  in  the  sense  of  uniformities  among  phenomena. 
Now,  to  look  for  possible  uniformities  among  re- 
ligious phenomena  is  not  to  make  any  assumption 
as  to  the  real  agents  involved.  It  is  simply  to  as- 
sume that  religious  experiences  are  not  a  chaotic 
mass  in  which  consequents  have  no  respect  for  ante- 
cedents. 

Looking  a  bit  deeper  into  the  problem,  we  may 
ask  whether  a  denial  of  this  one  assumption  would 
not  be  essentially  atheistic.  What  a  strange  inversion 
of  faith  is  that  which  looks  for  the  Infinite  Mind  in 
chaos  rather  than  in  cosmos !  Surely  God,  as  a  ra- 
tional being,  will  be  self -con  sis  tent,  wilt  act  in  the 

16 


INTRODUCTION 

same  way  under  the  same  circumstances.  If,  then, 
there  were  no  uniformities  in  religious  experience, 
the  inference  would  be  that  religion  itself  proceeded 
from  some  disorderly  or  mischievous  spirit  rather 
than  from  the  Father  of  Lights,  with  whom  is  no 
variablenessA  It  may  be  worth  while,  also,  to  remind 
ourselves  now  and  then  that  facts  are  facts,  and  that 
no  amount  of  theorizing  about  how  they  must  be  can 
prevent  or  refute  observation  of  how  they  actually 
are.  The  "armed  eye"  of  science  no  man  can  close, 
and  he  who  attempts  to  do  so  should  reflect  upon 
how  he  thereby  discredits  his  own  beliefs. 

Empirical  methods  do  not,  then,  reduce  the  facts 
of  the  religious  life  to  the  plane  of  the  natural  as  con- 
trasted with  the  supernatural.  Every  question  aris- 
ing in  the  psychology  of  religious  experience  may  be 
understood  in  this  way:  Under  what  circumstances 
does  the  Divine  Spirit  work  such  or  such  a  change 
in  the  minds  of  men?  That  the  Holy  Spirit  does 
observe  antecedents  and  wait  for  conditions  to  ripen ; 
that  he  does  not  vouchsafe  the  same  blessings  to  all 
individuals  or  to  all  ages  of  life ;  and  that  we  have  it 
in  our  power  either  to  prepare  the  way  for  his  revela- 
tions or  to  hinder  them — all  this  is  current  belief 
among  Christians.  Now,  these  are  the  very  uni- 
formities that  need  investigating.  In  fact,  psychol- 
ogy can  only  render  more  precise  and  complete  what 
is  already  recognized  in  a  partial  way  in  the  practice 
of  the  religious  life.  Yet  the  results  will  not  be  doc- 


TT  1ST  T  V -TT T?  « TT1  V 


INTRODUCTION 

trinal  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term.  They  will 
be  merely  statements  of  uniformities  existing  be- 
tween certain  antecedents  and  certain  consequents, 
and  will  leave  entirely  open  the  vast  field  of  questions 
regarding  the  divine  purposes  toward  men  and  re- 
garding man's  real  nature  and  destiny. 

Religious  Psychology  as  Equipment  for  Religious 
Work. 

The  importance  of  such  knowkdg-^  for  one  who 
has  the  care  of  souls  is  evident.  At  the  point  where 
the  theologian  becomes  a  winner  and  guide  of  men, 
there  definite  knowle^gg^of^^nen  turns  into  current 
coin.  Every  item  of  information  concerning  any 
uniformity  existing  between  a  certain  experience 
and  its  conditions  becomes  a  Jeyer.  ior— controUiftg 
the  experience  itself. 

In  his  efforts  to  adapt  himself  to  the  variegated 
needs  of  men  the  religious  worker  has  heretofore 
been  obliged  to  rely  almost  entirely  upon  instinctive 
sympathy  with  human  nature  and  the  tact  that  some- 
times blossoms  out  of  it.  ^Generally  the  worker 
makes  his  own  experience  a  standard  by  which  to 
judge  and  to  guide  the  experience  of  others — as 
though  the  many  members  of  Christ's  body,  in  spite 
of  their  diversity  of  gifts  and  of  duties,  must  never- 
theless have  the  same  form  of  experience.  In  one 
case  falling  under  my  knowledge  this  form  of  infer- 
ence was  employed  in  a  novel  way.  A  young  man, 

18 


INTRODUCTION 

who  on  three  different  occasions  had  earnestly  sought 
to  be  converted  and  had  failed  to  receive  what  his 
advisers  told  him  to  expect,  reasoned  as  follows :  "I 
have  honestly  met  all  the  conditions  laid  down,  but 
have  not  experienced  what  I  have  been  taught  to 
look  for.  I  am  not  different  from  other  men.  J  There- 
fore, since  I  have  not  received  the  blessing,  neither 
have  they.  ^The  whole  thing  is  a  mistake  or  a  sham !" 
Both  he  and  his  spiritual  guides  had  committed  the 
Jallacv  of  rpac;nning  from  insnffln'pnt  Hajg.  And  it 
is  not  easy  to  see  how  the  evil  effects  of  this  error  can 
be  eliminated  from  religious  work  unless  at  least  the 
leaders  of  such  work  take  the  trouble  to  study  the_re- 
Ijffious  mind  in  a  broadly  inductive  manner. 

So  far  as  I  am  informed,  practically  the  only  defi- 
nite and  communicable  scheme  of  adaptation  to  per- 
sonal needs  now  in  use  consists  in  marshaling  regi- 
ments of  Scripture  texts  with  which  to  fight  all  kinds 
of  doubt,  hesitation,  and  objection.  Whatever  vir- 
tues this  practice  may  possess,  it  certainly  suffers 
from  one  serious  defect,  that  it  studies  texts  rather 
than  human  nature.  It  does  not^as^whence  the 
doubt,  hesitation,  or  objection ;  it  does  not  seek  the 
conditions  in  order  to  remove  or  alleviate  them,  but 
fires  directly  at  the  results.  If  a  homely  simile  may 
be  pardoned,  our  ordinary  revival  methods  may  be 
compared  with  the  packages  of  proprietary  medi- 
cines to  be  found  on  the  shelves  of  any  drug  store. 

Glance  along  the  shelf  and  you  will  find  the  symp- 

19 


INTRODUCTION 

toms  of  almost  any  common  disease  described  with 
apparent  accuracy;  and  for  each  difficulty  here  is  a 
specific,  neatly  wrapped  up,  provided  with  directions 
for  taking,  and  in  many  cases  with  a  corkscrew  for 
unlocking  the  riches  within.  \  It  need  not  be  doubted 
that  multitudes  of  persons  have  been  really  helped 
by  doses  from  such  bottles.  The  vice  of  this  style 
of  medication  lies  in  the  fact  of  the  entire  absence  of 
competent  diagnosis,  of  competent  knowledge  of  the 
properties  of  the  remedy,  and  of  reasonable  certainty 
that  the  remedy  fits  the  patient.  Similarly,  many  a 
revival  worker  is  equipped  with  texts  and  advice  and 
exhortation,  all  neatly  classified  and  ready  for  appli- 
cation; but  the  investigation  of  the  cases  is  utterly 
superficial,  and  no  connection  is  ordinarily  estab- 
lished between  the  remedy  and  the  difficulty.  Of 
course,  some  will  say  that  the  method  approves  itself 
by  its  results.  But  the  same  may  be  said  for  "patent" 
medicines.  After  all,  the  question  is  not  merely 
whether  we  get  results,  but  rather  whether  we  get 
the  best  results  and  the  most  of  them.  For  this, 
knowledge  is  necessary  in  the  "cure  of  souls"  as  in 
the  healing  of  bodies.  How,  then,  should  we  excuse 
ourselves  if,  in  order  to  bodily  health,  we  should 
study  anatomy  and  physiology  with  diligence  while 
neglecting  to  know  that  more  delicate  organism,  the 
mind,  which  is  the  seat  of  our  spiritual  weal  or 
woe? 

It  is  well  to  remember,  too,  that  in  both  spheres  the 

20 


INTRODUCTION 

negative  cases  are  as  significant  as  the  positive  ones. 
We  must  ask  not  only  how  many  persons  we  reach 
by  the  revival,  but  also  how  many  we  fail  to  reach ; 
and  we  must  hold  ourselves  to  a  rigid  accountability 
for  the  souls  whom  our  defective  methods  get  into 
doubt  and  difficulty,  or  even  repel  from  religion  alto- 
gether. At  a  subsequent  point  in  our  discussion  we 
shall  see  that  this  question  of  the  negative  results  of 
well-meant  efforts  is  by  no  means  fanciful  or  gratui- 
tous. So  far,  in  fact,  are  these  maladjustments  from 
being  merely  occasional  or  rare  that  the  question  will 
at  last  press  itself  upon  us  whether  certain  widely 
approved  customs  do  not  quite  as  often  beget  throes 
of  disappointment  and  unrest  as  the  peace  and  con- 
fidence of  the  sons  of  God. 

Why  should  not  the  care  of  souls  become  an  art — 
a  system  of  organized  and  proportioned  methods 
based  upon  definite  knowledge  of  the  material  to  be 
wrought  upon,  the  ends  to  be  attained,  and  the  means 
and  instruments  for  attaining  them?  Such  an  art 
would  require  scientific  insight  into  the  general  or- 
ganization of  the  mind,  and  especially  into  the  par- 
ticular characteristics  of  the  child  mind,  the  youth 
mind,  and  the  mature  mind.  It  would  know  how  to 
discriminate  between  normal  and  morbid  states  of 
religious  feeling,  would  understand  the  intimate  in- 
terrelations between  the  spiritual  and  the  physical 
life,  would  observe  the  temperamental  and  other  dif- 
ferences between  individuals,  and  would  appreciate 

21 


INTRODUCTION 

the  difference  between  symmetrical  development  of 
all  the  faculties  and  the  various  kinds  of  spiritual  one- 
sidedness.  The  religious  artist  will  study  when  and 
how  and  how  far  to  administer  instruction  to  the  in- 
tellect, incitement  to  the  feelings,  and  stimulus  to  the 
will.  The  workman  who  needeth  not  to  be  ashamed 
must  know  how  rightly  to  divide.  Of  course,  he 
must  also  have  an  experience  of  his  own,  intimacy 
with  the  Scriptures,  and  inspiration.  \  Neither  knowl- 

^"**»  ^i .  _.  •     - 

edge  without  zeal  nor  zeal  without  knowledge  will 
suffice.  But,  given  the  scientific  knowledge  for  which 
a  plea  is  here  uttered,  together  with  these  other  quali- 
fications, and  mixed  with  a  reasonable  amount  of 
sympathy  and  tact,  we  have  the  artist  as  distin- 
guished from  the  mere  mechanic. 

Now,  this  knowledge  which  undergirds  the  art  of 
religious  culture  cannot  all  be  derived  from  specula- 
tive philosophy  or  from  any  of  the  traditional 
branches  of  theological  instruction.  Philosophy  and 
theology  do,  indeed,  have  many  important  things  to 
tell  the  religious  worker.  Not  seldom,  through  ig- 
norance of  the  history  of  philosophic  and  theologic 
thought,  religious  instruction  becomes  little  less  than 
farcical ;  but  fully  as  often  it  goes  astray  from  igno- 
rance of  the  workings  of  the  human  mind.  On  the 
other  hand,  here  and  there  can  be  found  a  leader 
whose  finer  tact  or  intuition  has  enabled  him  to  ac- 
quire much  of  the  necessary  insight  from  hand-to- 
hand  contact  with  the  problems  and  difficulties  of 

22 


INTRODUCTION 

his  calling.  This,  however,  is  a  laborious  way  of 
learning,  and  meantime,  though  one  use  one's  own 
errors  as  stepping-stones  to  better  things,  the  errors 
themselves  can  never  be  quite  nullified.  (  Everything, 
in  short,  goes  to  show  how  great  is  the  practical  need 
of  a  psychology  of  the  religious  life.\ 

The  Psychology  of  Religion  as  a  Clew  to  Existing 

Religious  Unrest. 

It  is  an  ancient  habit  of  religionists  to  try  to  under- 
stand everything  by  its  relation  to  the  accepted  stand- 
ards of  belief.  Give  any  new  or  old  movement  its 
correct  theological  classification  and  it  is  supposed  to 
be  thereby  adequately  construed.  Accordingly,  the 
weapons  which  the  average  religious  teacher  almost 
always  employs  against  supposedly  erroneous  sys- 
tems are  dialectic  darts.  The  best  current  example 
is  the  treatment  just  now  being  accorded  to  Christian 
Science  by  the  orthodox  clergy.  The  clergy  appar- 
ently believe  that,  if  only  the  so-called  philosophy 
underlying  Christian  Science  can  be  proved  to  be  ab- 
surd, the  inroads  of  this  new  sect  can  be  stopped 
But  neither  the  results  in  this  case  nor  human  experi- 
ence in  general  indicate  the  wisdom  or  adequacy  of 
this  style  of  attack.  It  would  be  a  very  great  delusion 
to  suppose  that  such  movements  make  progress  chief- 
ly by  convincing  the  rational  intellect,  or  that  they 
can  be  stopped  by  a  counter  appeal  of  the  same  sort. 

The  human  being  to  whom  religions  appeal  is  not 

23 


INTRODUCTION 

merely,  or  chiefly,  intellect,  but  rather  a  highly  com- 
plex organism  of  feelings  and  affections,  impulses 
and  aspirations,  habits  and  instincts.\  The  theology, 
or  intellectual  part,  of  a  religion  is  sure  to  have  some 
connection  with  these  other  factors  of  real  life,  but 
it  is  not  the  engine  that  keeps  them  going;  rather, 
they  are  the  engine  that  keeps  it  going.  To  speak 
more  accurately,  the  intellectual  and  other  factors 
exist  together  in  a  complex,  each  having  some  de- 
termining part  in  the  total  outcome,  but  the  purely 
intellectual  factor  is  less  influential  than  the  others. 
It  is  the  explanation  rather  than  the  thing  to  be  ex- 
plained ;  the  weapon  rather  than  the  thing  to  be  de- 
fended. 

What  has  just  been  said  of  Christian  Science  is 
true  also  of  most,  perhaps  all,  of  the  supposedly  aber- 
rant cults  and  substitutes  for  cults  of  which  our  day 
is  so  prolific.  Spiritualism,  theosophy,  the  religion 
of  positivism,  the  ethical  society  movement,  faith 
cure,  and  all  the  others  touch  the  human  soul  at  many 
points.  In  other  words,  they  can  be  understood  and 
practically  dealt  with  only  by  studying  them  from 
the  psychological  standpoint.  We  have  already 
learned  that  the  proper  question  with  regard  to  such 
movements  is  never  "Is  it  true,  or  false?"  for  we 
know  that  large  groups  of  men  are  never  captivated 
for  any  length  of  time  by  absolute  error.  Every  sys- 
tem of  belief  is  partly  true  and  partly  false.  But  the 

time  has  now  come  when  we  ought  to  grasp  a  still 

24 


INTRODUCTION 

larger  truth,  widen  out  our  horizon  still  further.  We 
must  somehow  come  to  feel  with  those  from  whom 
we  differ  however  profoundly;  we  must  somehow 
trace  out  their  processes  of  mental  manufacture — 
noting  how  the  power  is  carried  from  wheel  to  band, 
from  band  to  shaft,  from  shaft  and  band  to  this 
machine  and  that,  each  of  which  contributes  some- 
thing to  the  finished  product.  Truly  this  is  a  far 
more  delicate  and  complicated  and  pains-demanding 
task  than  the  mere  logical  anatomizing  of  a  system 
of  beliefs ;  but  its  outcome  is  correspondingly  richer. 
It  brings  us  closer  to  life  in  its  concreteness ;  it  opens 
avenues  of  sympathy,  and,  should  heaven  give  us  the 
mission  of  correcting  error,  it  shows  us  how  to  reach 
the  total  cause  and  not  merely  one  or  two  of  its 
symptoms. 

Furthermore,  we  sadly  need  to  understand  the 
great  mass  of  persons  who  have  cut  loose  from  all 
forms  of  organized  religion.  Experience  seems  to 
show  that  we  cannot  hope  to  win  them  back  by 
either  wailing  or  scolding  or  arguing  or  coddling. 
We  must  nowr  begin  at  the  other  end — find  out  what 
we  have  to  deal  with  before  we  hasten  to  adopt  ex- 
pedients. >sWhat  is  the  state  of  mind  of  these  per- 
sons ?  Is  the  religious  instinct  lacking  in  them  ?  Arej 
they  deliberately  stifling  their  highest  aspirations  ?;! 
How  do  they  feel  when  they  think  of  God,  of  death, 
of  the  facts  of  life?  Have  they  found  some  substi- 
tute for  the  Church  which  seems  to  yield  the  satis- 

25 


INTRODUCTION 

faction  which  the  religious  instinct  craves?  What 
do  they  teach  their  children,  and  what  do  they  de- 
sire their  children  to  be  like?  Here,  once  more, 
nothing  short  of  the  psychological  standpoint  gives 
any  promise  of  the  needed  insight  and  the  needed 
leverage. 

Finally,  we  need  to  understand  our  own  Church 
life  better  than  we  do.  Much  that  characterizes  the 
Churches  has  its  origin,  of  course,  in  their  respective 
creeds,  and  must  be  understood  from  the  doctrinal 
standpoint ;  but  much  more  has  its  origin  elsewhere. 
The  soul  strives  always  to  utter  its  whole  self,  and 
when  perfect  religion  is  attained  it  will  be  found  to 
be  the  center  and  unity  and  life  energy  of  whatever 
is  worthy  to  be  called  human.  Which  side  or  sides 
of  this  spherical  religious  instinct  are  most  cultivated 
in  each  of  the  denominations?  How  far  do  we  en- 
courage the  life  of  contemplation?  how  far  the  life 
of  action  ?  What  states  of  mind  are  expressed  in  our 
favorite  songs  ?  What  are  our  ethical  ideals  ?  What 
classes  of  society  come  to  church;  what  services  do 
they  attend,  and  why?  In  what  proportion  do  the 
two  sexes  participate  in  the  various  forms  of  activity 
and  life  ?  These  questions  could  easily  be  multiplied 
to  a  hundred,  every  one  of  which  would  name  an  im- 
portant practical  problem  that  requires  psychological 
analysis  for  its  answering.  ; 

This  sketch  of  some  of  the  possible  services  of 

a  psychology  of  the  religious  life  is  not  the  proc1 

26 


INTRODUCTION 

tarnation  of  a  program  of  any  kind.  As  far  as  the 
present  studies  are  concerned,  it  merely  indicates 
some  of  the  practical  aspirations  that  have  con- 
trolled the  selection  of  a  few  topics  out  of  the  whole 
vast  field. 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 


CHAPTER  I 

A  Study  of  Religious  Awakening; 

THE  most  striking  of  the  definitely  established 
results  reached  by  the  group  of  pioneer  investigators 
mentioned  in  the  Introduction  is  that/ there  exists  a 
general  coordination  between  personal  religious  de- 
velopment and  the  chief  periods  of  physical  and  men- 
tal growth.)  Whoever  stops  to  reflect  upon  the  com- 
monest facts  of  childhood  must  perceive  that,  in  the 
nature  of  things,  childhood  religion  must  differ  from 
the  religion  of  adult  life.  But  this  most  general  ob- 
servation is  insufficient  to  furnish  a  basis  for  settling 
the  various  questions  connected  with  religious  train- 
ing. For  this  purpose  it  is  essential  that  we  define 
the  epochs  of  growth,  recognize  the  marks  of  transi- 
tion, and  determine  the  special  characteristics 
tendencies  and  difficulties  of  each  period. 

Thus  much  the  merest  common  sense  would  seem 
to  dictate.  Nevertheless,  even  in  these  days  one 

sometimes  meets  with  religious  teaching  that  calls 
3  29 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

for  practically  the  same  type  of  religious  experience 
in  persons  of  all  ages.  It  is  even  regarded  as  a  fine 
thing  when  a  child  of  seven  or  ten  passes  through 
paroxysms  of  repentance  and  conversion  and  after- 
ward talks  and  prays  like  a  grown  person.  I  say  this 
not  from  hearsay,  but  from  my  own  observation. 
When,  in  addition,  such  a  child  assumes  the  airs  of 
a  preacher,  and  exhorts  men  to  flee  from  the  wrath 
to  come — as  recently  happened,  it  is  said,  with  a  child 
of  five  years  in  the  city  of  Chicago — the  satisfaction 
of  some  misguided  parents  and  teachers  knows  no 
bounds.  For  the  most  part,  this  particular  kind  of 
foolishness  has  died  a  natural  death;  yet  who  shall 
say  that  parents  and  teachers  yet  know  what  they 
ought  to  look  for  in  childhood  religion?  There  is, 
in  fact,  a  widespread  desire  to  know  what  children 
should  be  taught  about  God  and  salvation,  what  re- 
ligious exercises  should  be  required  of  them,  and 
how  far  their  impulses  of  various  kinds  should  be 
trusted  and  how  far  restrained.  Nothing  short  of 
a  treatise  would  answer  all  such  questions;  yet  the 
fundamental  truth  that  should  be  controlling  can  be 
stated  in  a  few  words.  The  whole  question  goes 
back,  finally,  to  the  psychologist.  Tell  me  wherein 
the  child  mind  differs  from  the  mind  of  youth  and  of 
adult,  and,  particularly,  tell  me  how  the  child  mind 
unfolds  into  the  youth  mind,  and  the  rest  will  be  a 
matter  of  inference  joined  with  the  ever-necessary 
inventiveness  and  tact. 

30 


RELIGIOUS  AWAKENII 

"When  I  was  a  child,  .  .  .  I  thought  as  a  child." 

To  begin  with,  we  may  roughly  divide  the  period 
of  about  twenty-four  years  that  elapses  before  full 
maturity  is  attained  into  two  subperiods  of  twelve 
years  each :  the  period  of  childhood  and  that  of 
youth,  or  adolescence.  To  assume,  as  is  commonly 
done,  that  the  difference  between  these  two  is  chiefly 
physiological  is  a  complete  mistake;  for  along  with 
the  physiological  characteristics  of  each  period  go 
mental  traits  equally  well  marked.  The  transition, 
moreover,  from  childhood  to  youth  is  as  profound 
an  affair  mentally  as  it  is  physically.  Let  us  note 
briefly  how  the  mental  and  the  physical  are  corre- 
lated. 

The  child,  considered  as  a  member  of  an  animal 
species,  is  incapable  of  social  functions.  He  is  re- 
stricted to  physical  individualism.  He  is  not  yet  a 
whole  human  being,  but  is  rather,  to  adopt  the  words 
of  another,  "a  candidate  for  humanity."  His  mental 
functions  are  correspondingly  limited.  He  is  de- 
pendent in  mind  as  he  is  in  body.  As  his  elders  pro- 
vide his  food,  so  they  provide  his  ideas.  He  is  a 
creature  of  impressions  rather  than  of  reasons;  al- 
though his  exuberant  activity  may  express  itself  in 
the  form  of  apparently  profound  questions,  these  are 
rarely  of  vital  concern.  Few  healthy  children  will 
lose  sleep  because  they  cannot  solve  such  problems. 
Similarly,  his  moral  life  is  largely  dependent  and 

individualistic.    This  is,  therefore,  the  time  for  pre- 
31 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

cepts  and  the  formation  of  habits  of  obedience.  His 
attention  is  taken  up  with  particular  things  to  be 
done  or  to  be  avoided.  It  has  not  occurred  to  him  to 
ask  for  the  meaning  of  life  as  a  whole,  or  to  question 
the  authority  that  is  customary.  He  looks  without 
and  not  within ;  at  the  near  rather  than  the  remote ; 
at  the  present  rather  than  the  future.  In  a  word,  he 
does  not  realize,  either  in  thought,  feeling,  or  con- 
duct, the  organic  relation  of  the  human  individual  to 
the  race,  to  nature,  and  to  God. 
[  Childhood  religion  is  normally  such  as  can  fit  into 
such  a  mind  without  strain  or  distortion.^  The  child 
is  able  to  take  God  for  granted  just  because  God  is 
mentioned  to  him ;  but,  to  the  child,  God  is  a  particu- 
lar being  among  other  beings,  even  one  to  be  teased, 
cajoled,  or  deceived.  When  a  storm-cloud  threatens 
to  break  up  a  game  there  is  prayer  to  avert  the  rain. 
Of  course,  childhood  is  not  mistaken  in  thus  thinking 
of  the  All-Father ;  it  merely  conceives  him  by  means 
of  childish  faculties  and  gives  him  a  natural  and 
proper  place  within  a  child's  stock  of  ideas.  I  have 
questioned  many  persons  as  to  whether  in  their  child- 
hood God  seemed  to  speak  through  their  consciences, 
but  in  very  few  cases  have  I  received  affirmative  an- 
swers. In  general,  also,  the  child  "says"  its  prayers, 
not  being  able  so  much  as  to  guess  what  prayer 
is  to  one  who  knows  the  stress  and  strain  of  life. 
Religious  duties  are  gone  through  with  much  as  the 
calisthenic  or  singing  exercises  at  school.  Depth  of 

32 


RELIGIOUS  AWAKENING 

personal  interest,  of  personal  understanding,  or  of 
personal  decision  is  not  likely  to  be  there  unless 
growth  is  forced  by  unnatural  instruction  or  by  some 
unnatural  burden  upon  the  nervous  system. 

At  about  the  age  of  twelve,  though  frequently  be- 
fore it,  especially  in  the  case  of  girls,  strange  pre- 
monitions begin  to  be  felt.  The  child  can  no  longer 
be  completely  nai've,  individualistic,  or  unconscious 
of  himself.  He  can  no  longer  take  the  world  and 
himself  for  granted.  This  is  a  prophecy  of  a  mo- 
mentous experience.  During  the  next  three  or  four 
years  there  is  to  come  a  transformation  of  the  mental 
as  well  as  of  the  physical  organism  more  profound 
than  any  other  between  birth  and  death.  New  kinds 
of  sensation  and  of  emotion,  new  modes  of  thought, 
new  attitudes  of  will,  new  meanings  in  life,  new 
problems  of  duty,  new  kinds  of  temptation,  new 
mysteries  in  religion — all  these  to  come  in  a  flood 
over  the  young  adolescent.  Some  one  has  said  of 
mental  adolescence  that  it  is  as  if  we  were  born  over 
again,  not  from  an  unremembered  past  into  which 
the  new  life  can  bring  no  surprises,  but  from  one 
conscious  life  into  another  that  cannot  be  under- 
stood by  anything  in  our  previous  experience. 

In  many  ways  this  is  undoubtedly  the  most  critical 
period  in  the  whole  development  of  the  individual. 
We  should  therefore  expect  to  find  the  training  of 
the  child,  especially  as  he  approaches  puberty,  organ- 
ized and  guided  so  as  to  prepare  him  for  this  singu- 

33 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

lar  experience.  To  lessen  the  shock  of  the  sexual 
awakening,  and  to  prepare  beforehand  for  its  new 
temptations,  we  should  expect  parents  to  impart, 
long  before  such  knowledge  can  become  an  irritant, 
the  essential  facts  regarding  the  nature  of  sex.  In  a 
subsequent  study  I  shall  show  how  direct  is  the  bear- 
ing of  this  point  upon  religious  development  during 
youth.  There  can  be  few  greater  unkindnesses  to  a 
youth  than  to  permit  him  to  meet  and  to  deal  with 
the  profoundest  fact  of  his  physical  being  without 
ever  having  received  from  a  pure  and  authoritative 
source  a  single  item  of  information  regarding  it.  On 
the  part  of  parents  and  teachers  unusual  sympathy 
is  demanded  during  these  trying  transition  years. 
We  should  expect  all  the  guides  of  the  child  to  un- 
derstand him,  and  to  let  him  know  that  he  is  under- 
stood, so  that  he  may  freely  ask  advice.  We  should 
expect  to  find  his  school  tasks  and  other  tasks,  his 
plays,  his  home  life,  his  church  life,  and  his  social 
life  all  arranged  and  supervised  with  special  refer- 
ence to  his  stage  of  growth.  To  ask  whether  the 
church,  the  school,  or  the  home  satisfies  these  reason- 
able expectations  is  less  the  putting  of  a  question 
than  the  proclamation  of  an  indictment.  We  have 
not  so  much  as  taken  the  trouble  to  understand  the 
period  of  youth;  how,  then,  can  we  expect  to  con- 
serve and  promote  its  moral  and  religious  values? 
What  is  first  of  all  needful  is  to  understand  the — 

34 


RELIGIOUS  AWAKENING 

Mental  Characteristics  of  Adolescence. 

The  term  adolescence,  as  now  commonly  used  by 
psychologists,  designates  the  whole  period  of  ap- 
proximately a  dozen  years  from  the  first  premoni- 
tions of  puberty  to  the  completion  of  the  change  to 
adult  life.1  The  mental  development  during  this 
period  is  directly  correlated  with  the  physical.  As 
the  child  now  comes  into  possession  of  all  the  powers 
that  belong  to  the  species,  and  thus  becomes  a  de- 
termining factor  in  it,  so  his  feelings  and  his  intel- 
lectual horizon  rapidly  widen  out.  There  is  greater 
independence,  and  yet  greater  consciousness  of  so- 
cial dependence.  The  social  instinct,  in  fact,  now 
for  the  first  time  cornes  to  blossom.  There  enters 
into  the  life  a  new  sense  of  how  others  think  and 
feel,  and  a  self-conscious  effort  after  social  life  and 
social  adjustment.  Life  means  more.  Naively  in- 
dividualistic the  youth  cannot  be;  if  he  is  selfish,  it 
is  only  by  a  more  or  less  conscious  wrenching  of  him- 
self out  of  his  normal  adjustment. 

We  found  the  child  mind  occupied  with  impres- 
sions, and  caring  little  for  the  universal.  It  is  just 
the  other  way  with  the  mind  of  the  youth.  The  uni- 
versal infatuates  him,  while  the  particular  is  likely 
to  appear  as  a  delay  and  a  hindrance.  He  becomes 
a  dreamer  enamored  of  ideals  and  ravished  with  am- 
bitions. Nothing  but  the  greatest  is  great  enough 

1  On  this  use  of  the  term,  see  W.  H.  Burnham,  in  Pedagogical  Seminary, 
i,  174!?.,  and  E.  G.  Lancaster,  #/</.,  vi,  6iff. 

35 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

for  him ;  nothing  but  the  perfect  has  any  worth  or 
beauty.  When  he  was  a  child  his  attention  was  ab- 
sorbed by  the  things  about  him;  but  now  the  new 
feelings  and  powers  blossoming  within  him  direct 
his  mind  inward,  and  he  becomes  self-conscious, 
bashful,  introspective,  critical.  The  most  prominent 
thing  about  him  is  sensibility,  and  this  may  become 
so  acute  that  he  shrinks  from  life,  conceals  himself, 
and  eats  his  own  heart  in  solitude.  He  may  become 
incommunicative,  secretive,  lonely,  or  he  may  seek 
support  in  the  friendship  of  a  clique  of  youths  who, 
being  of  his  own  age,  can  appreciate  him. 

Just  as  the  youth's  own  life  grows  inward,  the 
things  about  him  get  an  inner'Side  also.  It  is  now 
that  beauty  in  nature  assumes  its  mystical,  fascinat- 
ing quality.  He  thinks  of  things  as  having  mysteri- 
ous ultimate  principles  which  he  would  fain  pene- 
trate. He  has  confidence  in  his  ability  to  understand 
all  mysteries  if  only  he  could  get  the  right  clew.  He 
no  longer  takes  things  merely  as  they  appear,  nor  is 
he  willing  to  take  anything  for  granted.  Nothing 
short  of  absolute,  indubitable  truth,  the  true  inward- 
ness, the  complete  subjectivizing  of  everything,  can 
satisfy  him.  Nothing  short  of  absolutely  right  con- 
duct can  be  right  at  all.  He  hates  all  imperfections, 
all  compromises.  What  other  persons  call  prudence 
seems  to  him  to  be  disloyalty  to  principle.  He  will 
penetrate  to  the  heart  of  moral  law.  Heretofore 

morality  has  imposed  itself  from  outside,  and  right 

36 


RELIGIOUS  AWAKENING 

conduct  has  consisted  in  obedience  to  formal  rules; 
but  now  he  begins  to  inspect  the  rules  themselves, 
and,  though  he  may  question  them,  he  finds  within 
his  own  breast  a  lawgiver  more  exacting  and  terrible 
than  any  external  rules.  Though  he  passes  out  from 
under  the  tutelage  of  social  law,  he  approaches  in  his 
own  consciousness  only  so  much  nearer  the  awful 
seat  of  right. 

It  is  now  that  he  becomes  a  conscious  logician.  A 
passion  for  argumentation  takes  possession  of  him. 
He  will  settle  everything  by  rigorous  logic.  It  was 
at  this  period  of  life  that  Descartes  entered  upon  the 
course  of  thought  that  produced  his  principle  of 
doubting  everything  that  can  be  doubted.  The  ado- 
lescent is  a  remorseless  critic.  There  is  no  limit  to 
his  captiousness  and  censoriotisness.  The  least  slip 
in  pronunciation,  the  least  infelicity  of  rhetoric,  the 
least  fault  in  dress,  in  manners,  or  in  conduct,  is 
seized  upon  wherever  found,  and  playmates,  teachers, 
pastor,  and  parents  pass  under  the  rod  of  his  scorn. 
Then  appear  pride,  conceit,  self-will,  and  rebellion 
against  authority. 

But  all  this  time  the  youngster  has  been  applying 
this  whole  merciless  process  to  himself.  He  debates 
with  himself  more  than  with  anyone  else.  He  criti- 
cises himself ;  he  agonizes  for  his  faults.  Most  of  all, 
perhaps,  he  will  wring  the  secret  of  existence  from 
himself.  The  childish  "why,"  which  used  to  be  asked 

out  of  playful  curiosity,  has  now  given  place  to  a 

37 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

serious  questioning  upon  which  the  issues  of  life  and 
of  death  appear  to  hang.  And  because  the  "why"  of 
life  does  not  respond  to  his  insistent  pleadings  he 
becomes  puzzled  and  perplexed,  possibly  impatient 
with  life  itself.  "Why  was  I  born?  What  am  I 
good  for?"  he  asks  in  torturing  uncertainty.  He 
may  find  relief  in  religion,  or  he  may  merely  brood 
and  worry,  or  he  may  take  the  easy  road  of  doubt 
and  skepticism.  Because  his  power  to  ask  questions 
exceeds  the  wisdom  of  the  wisest  to  answer,  the  abso- 
lute mystery  of  being  presses  down  upon  his  spirit  as 
if  to  crush  it. 

But  this  creature  of  intense  emotion,  and  of  in- 
tense, though  narrow,  intellectuality,  has  not  corre- 
sponding power  of  action.  He  can  conceive  great 
things,  he  fancies  himself  doing  great  things,  but 
here  he  stands  only  less  helpless  than  a  child.  This 
is  partly  because  his  whole  being  tends  to  turn  in 
upon  itself  and  thereby  lose  the  relief  that  comes 
from  free  self-expression.  Here,  then,  are  condi- 
tions altogether  extraordinary.  The  adolescent  can 
neither  continue  the  free,  individualistic,  objective 
life  of  childhood,  nor  does  he  yet  perceive  how  to 
adjust  himself  to  the  larger  life.  He  is  likely  to  be- 
come awkward  in  both  body  and  mind,  and  the 
consciousness  of  this  awkwardness  may  constitute 
for  him  a  tragedy. 

Adolescence,  then,  is  a  period  of  general  mental 

fermentation,  but  with  definite  tendencies  toward 

38 


RELIGIOUS  AWAKENING 

sociality,  intellectual  independence,  a  sense  of  duty 
and  destiny,  self-consciousness,  and  appreciation  of 
the  true,  the  beautiful,  and  the  good.  It  is  evident 
that  childhood  religion,  like  all  else  in  life,  will  now 
become  yeasty.  Indeed,  if  one's  religion  is  to  keep 
pace  with  the  mental  development  in  other  respects, 
now  is  the  time  when  religious  changes  are  to  be  de- 
sired as  normal  incidents  in  religious  growth.  To 
advise  an  adolescent  against  religious  transforma- 
tions that  shall  carry  him  out  of  the  sphere  of  his 
childhood  feelings,  thoughts,  and  practices  is  as  vain, 
and  even  harmful,  as  it  would  be  to  insist  that  his 
childish  games  and  occupations  should  continue  to 
satisfy. 

Adolescence  and  Religious  Awakening. 

We  shall  come  near  the  heart  of  the  matter  if  we 
say  that  the  broader,  deeper  questioning  as  to  the 
meaning  of  life,  together  with  the  blossoming  of  the 
social  instinct,  brings  the  need  of  a  new  and  more 
deeply  personal  realization  of  the  content  of  religion. 
The  quickened  conscience,  with  its  thirst  for  absolute 
righteousness ;  the  quickened  intellect,  with  its  thirst 
for  absolute  truth ;  the  quickened  aesthetic  sense,  with 
its  intuitions  of  a  beauty  that  eye  hath  not  seen  and 
ear  hath  not  heard ;  the  quickened  social  sense,  with 
its  longing  for  perfect  and  eternarcompanionship — 
in  short,  the  new  meaningfulness  and  mystery  of  life 
— all  this  tends  to  bring  in  a  new  and  distinct  epoch 

39 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

in  religious  experience.  If  one  has  not  been  religious 
in  childhood,  now  is  the  supremely  favorable  time  for 
conversion ;  and  if  one  has  been  religious,  there  is  still 
need,  in  most  cases,  for  a  personal  decision  and  per- 
sonal acceptance  that  shall  supersede  the  more  ex- 
ternal habits  of  childhood.  Without  giving  to  our 
terms  any  theological  significance,  we  may  say  that 
/conversion,  or  some  equivalent  personalising  of  reli- 
gion, is  a  normal  part  of  adolescent  growth?)  This,  in 
fact,  is  the  truth  that  stands  out  most  prominently  as 
a  result  of  the  studies  referred  to  in  the  Introduction. 
To  begin  with,  of  598  miscellaneous  cases  collected 
by  E.  G.  Lancaster,  518  showed  new  religious  incli- 
nations between  the  ages  of  12  and  25,  and  mostly 
between  the  ages  of  12  and  2O.1  Of  776  graduates 
of  Drew  Theological  Seminary  the  largest  number 
were  converted  at  the  age  of  16,  and  the  average  age 
of  conversion  was  i6.4.2  Of  526  officers  of  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Associations  in  the  United 
States  and  the  British  Provinces  the  average  age  of 
conversion  was  almost  identical  with  that  of  the 
Drew  graduates,  namely,  16.5.  Furthermore,  the 
average  age  at  which  512  of  these  officers  report  that 
they  were  first  deeply  affected  by  religious  influences 
is  I3-7.3  Starbuck  found  the  average  age  of  con- 
version of  51  men  to  be  15.7  years,  and  of  86  women, 

1  Pedagogical  Seminary^  v,  95. 

a  Starbuck,  American  Journal  of  Psychology,  ix,  79. 

8  Luther  Gulick,  "  Sex  and  Religion,"  in  Association  Outlook  for  December 
1897,  54. 

40 


RELIGIOUS  AWAKENING 


13.8  years.1  He  also  found  a  similar  change,  though 
less  marked  than  what  is  ordinarily  signified  by  con- 
version, occurring  in  75  boys  at  the  average  age  of 
16.3  years,  and  in  120  girls  at  the  average  age  of 
13.7  years.  In  no  cases  similar  to  these  Lancaster 
found  the  average  to  be,  for  boys,  15.6  years,  and  for 
girls,  14.6.2 

From  my  own  studies  I  am  able  to  add  the  follow- 
ing data  :3  In  the  first  place,  judging  that  what  we 
most  desire  to  know  is  the  tendeiicy  of  these  years 
rather  than  the  outcome,  it  has  seemed  to  me  that 
what  we  should  look  for  is  not  merely  conversions, 
but  also  awakenings,  however  these  resulted.  Ac- 
cordingly, I  have  secured  a  report  from  99  men  as  to 
their  age  at  each  marked  religious  awakening;  that 
is,  at  each  period  of  marked  increase  of  religious  in- 
terest, conviction,  etc.  These  99  men  report  202 
awakenings,  or  an  average  of  two  apiece.  Distribut- 
ing these  awakenings  through  the  years  in  which 
they  occurred,  from  the  earliest,  at  6  years,  up  to  the 
age  of  28,  we  get  the  following  table : 


A$e. 

6 

7 

8 

5 

to 

n 

12 

A3 

/•? 

IS 

/6 

17 

18 

19 

20 

21 

22 

23 

24 

25 

26 

2728 

Number  of 
Au>al(eninas 

1 

1 

3 

J 

4 

8 

19 

22 

9 

13 

20 

2t 

/+ 

16 

20 

6 

9 

2 

J 

f 

3 

1 

1  It  is  agreed  that  the  adolescent  religious  change  comes  with  girls  a  year  or  two 
earlier  than  with  boys — a  significant  evidence  of  the  correlation  of  the  religious 
with  the  physical  change ;  for  practically  the  same  difference  exists  in  both  cases. 

a  Starbuck,  American  Journal  of  Psychology,  ix,  80. 

8  These  data  were  collected  chiefly  by  means  of  a  questionnaire  which  will  be 
found  in  Appendix  A. 

41 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

These  proportions  may  be  graphically  represented 
in  the  form  of  the  following  curve : 


: 


AGE   OF   RELIGIOUS    AWAKENINGS    OF   99    MEN. 

It  is  noticeable  that  there  are  three  well-marked 
periods  of  awakening,  namely,  at  12  and  13,  1 6  and 
17,  and  20.  Only  ten  per  cent  of  all  the  awakenings 
occurred  under  the  age  of  12  years,  while  fifty  per 
cent  occurred  at  these  maximum  periods.  Again, 
while  ten  per  cent  took  place  under  12  years,  seventy- 
six  per  cent  fell  in  the  years  from  12  to  20.  The 
average  age  of  the  men  making  these  reports  is  25.4 
years.  In  the  entire  number  there  are  only  three 
persons  under  20,  only  five  under  22,  and  only  eight 
over  28.  The  highest  age  is  36,  and  the  lowest  18. 
The  curve  may  therefore  be  regarded  as  fairly  repre- 
sentative for  the  average  age  of  25.4  years. 

If  we  now  proceed  to  ask  where  the   decisive 

awakening  (conversion,  etc.)  occurs,  we  obtain  the 

42 


RELIGIOUS  AWAKENING 


following  results  for  the  84  cases  out  of  the  99  in 
which  anything  decisive  could  be  referred  to  a  par- 
ticular date: 


ASe. 

7 

8 

9 

10 

// 

12 

15 

M- 

15 

/6 

/7 

18 

19 

20 

21 

22 

25 

24 

Decisive 

Awakenings. 

I 

i 

i 

? 

3 

8 

10 

3 

7 

/J 

14 

6 

J 

6 

1 

2 

1 

Representing  these  results  graphically,  as  before, 
this  is  the  curve  we  obtain : 


Z 


t 


V 


\ 


ft    9    10   II    I?   I*  14.  is  /fi   17  /A  /O  ?n  ?l 


AGE  OF  DECISIVE  RELIGIOUS  AWAKENING  OF  84  MEN. 

The  curve  goes  up  at  the  same  points  as  before, 
but  much  higher  at  16  and  17  than  at  any  other  age. 
The  average  age  of  decisive  awakening  for  the  84 
men  is  15.4  years,  which  is  only  .3  of  a  year  below 
Starbuck's  average,  and  within  i.i  years  of  the  high- 
est average  reached  in  any  group  yet  reported. 

Again,  the  average  age  of  conversion  of  272  mem- 
bers of  the  Rock  River  Annual  Conference  of  the 

43 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 


Methodist  Episcopal  Church  is  16.4  years.     These 
conversions  are  distributed  as  follows : 


Age. 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

II 

i? 

13 

ll- 

/£ 

/6 

17 

18 

19 

20 

21 

22 

25 

21 

25 

26 

27 

28 

29 

JO 

31 

-32 

33 

31 

iS  36 

Conversions. 

1 

5 

7 

9 

6 

7 

23 

f5 

IS 

20 

3t 

25 

ta 

25 

/S 

/J 

5 

8 

4 

3 

5 

1 

3 

' 

/ 

1 

/ 

Once  more  platting  a  curve,  we  have  the  following : 


fl   in  12  14-   Ifi  IR  20  22  94-  26  28  30  32  34 


AGE  OF  CONVERSION  OF  2J2  MEMBERS  OF  ROCK  RIVER 
ANNUAL    CONFERENCE. 

Here,  as  before,  the  curve  shows  three  crests,  and 
at  almost  the  same  points.  Furthermore,  the  average 
age  is  16.4,  and  the  largest  number  were  converted 
at  1 6.  Ony  thirteen  per  cent  were  converted  under 
12,  and  only  sixteen  per  cent  after  20. 

Exhibiting  in  one  table  the  results  reached  by 
44 


RELIGIOUS  AWAKENING 


examining  all  these  different  groups,  we  have  the 
following  very  striking  statistics : 

AGE    OF    CONVERSION    OR    DECISIVE    AWAKENING    OF 
1,784    MEN. 


Cases 
Examined. 

Average 
Age. 

776 

16  4 

Y   M   C   A    Officers                        

526 

16.5 

51 

I5«7 

272 

16.4 

84 

15-4 

Total  

1,784 

16.4 

If,  now,  this  average  age  of  greatest  religious 
awakening  be  compared  with  the  age  of  accession 
to  puberty,  the  conclusion  will  be  sufficiently  convinc- 
ing that  the  mental  upturning  that  accompanies  the 
physical  transformation  is  peculiarly  favorable  to  a 
life  decision  in  the  matter  of  religion. 

The  three  crests  of  the  curves,  a  fact  first  pointed 
out  by  Starbuck,  may  also  indicate  a  still  clocer  cor- 
relation, namely,  between  three  stages  of  the  physi- 
cal change  and  three  stages  of  religious  growth.1  In 
connection  with  this  point  there  is  an  interesting  fact 
about  sanctification  and  similar  experiences.  My  at- 
tention having  been  attracted  to  the  relatively  large 
number  of  persons  who  reported  having  sought  or 
obtained  a  second  experience  at  about  the  age  of  20, 
I  made  definite  inquiry  on  this  point.  The  result  is 
a  group  of  51  men  who  experienced  what  is  variously 

1  Starbuck,  American  Journal  of  Psychology,  ix,  82. 

4  45 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 


styled  by  them  sanctification,  perfect  consecration, 
etc.,  this  term  in  every  case  signifying  a  more  or  less 
definite  experience  succeeding  conversion  or  the  de- 
cisive awakening.  These  experiences  are  distributed 
as  follows : 


A3e 

13 

1+ 

£ 

16 

17 

IK 

/,9 

?0 

•)/ 

9? 

?*> 

?4 

?x 

Second 

Experience 

2 

0 

0 

0 

4 

4- 

II 

14 

+ 

5 

2 

2 

/ 

/ 

0 

/ 

The  curve  which  might  be  drawn  to  represent  these 
proportions  would  give  a  premonition  of  itself  at  13 
(the  first  period  of  adolescent  awakening),  start  in 
again  at  17  (the  second  such  period) ,  reach  a  decided 
maximum  at  20  (the  third  period),  and  then  rapidly 
fall  away. 

All  of  this  goes  to  show  that  religious  tendencies 
are  a  most  important  feature  of  general  adolescent 
development.  When  the  approaching  change  first 
heralds  itself  the  religious  consciousness  also  tends 
to  awaken.  Again,  when  the  bodily  life  is  in  most 
rapid  transition  the  religious  instincts  likewise  come 
into  a  new  and  greater  life.  Finally,  when  the  fer- 
mentation of  youth  begins  to  settle  into  the  calmness 
of  maturity,  once  more  religion  makes  its  claim  to  be 
counted  in  the  life.  It  should  be  borne  in  mind,  of 
course,  that  the  statistics  here  presented  have  been 
gathered  largely  from  persons  under  middle  age. 

They  do  not,  therefore,  claim  to  show  the  average 

46 


"U: 

RELIGIOUS  AWAKENING 

age  of  conversion  for  all  Christians.  Yet  they  do 
show  the  tendencies  of  adolescence,  and  make  it  prob- 
able that  something  like  these  results  would  hold  for 
all  large  groups. 

Interpretations. 

Possibly  some  persons,  over-zealous  to  discredit 
cherished  beliefs,  will  see  in  the  correlation  of  reli- 
gious awakening  with  physical  adolescence  an  indi-/ 
cation  that  religion  or  conversion  is  a  product  of 
physical  factors.  But  nothing  could  well  be  more 
illogical  than  such  an  inference.  What  is  established 
is  the  concomitance  of  two  groups  of  facts,  and  this 
particular  instance  of  such  concomitance  between 
mental  and  physical  facts  is  no  more  fitted  to  give 
comfort  to  materialism  than  any  other  instance  of 
the  correlation  of  brain  states  with  mental  states. 
Let  us  rather  interpret  the  facts  as  follows :  The  mejq^  / 
tal  condition  during  adolescence  is  particularly  fa-  * 
vorable  to  deep  religious  impressions.  This  is  the 
time  that  the  child  becomes  competent  to  make  a 
deeply  personal  life  choice;  such  a  choice  is  now 
easier  than  either  before  or  after ;  this  is,  accordingly, 
the  time  at  which  a  wise  Church  will  expect  to  reap 
its  chief  harvest  of  members. 

The  strength  of  this  position  is  much  greater  than 
the  statistics  alone  can  reveal.  For,  even  though 
striking  experiences  or  strong  decisions  may  appar- 
ently be  lacking,  nevertheless,  during  these  same 

47 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

adolescent  years,  one  is  likely  to  experience  a  new 
religious  attitude,  uplift,  illumination,  or  rapid 
growth.  Again,  Churches  that  lay  less  stress  upon 
the  inner  experiences  and  more  upon  religious  nur- 
ture place  confirmation  or  a  first  communion  at  about 
the  same  point  in  respect  to  age.  And  even  in  these 
Churches  emotional  accompaniments  are  not  by  any 
means  altogether  lacking.  It  is  not  uncommon  for 
a  Catholic  child,  for  instance,  upon  partaking  of  his 
first  communion,  to  experience  emotion  so  strong 
that  it  shines  through  the  face.  I  am  able  to  state 
this  fact  upon  the  authority  of  a  priest  of  large  ex- 
perience. 

Nor  is  the  Christian  religion  alone  in  making  this 
age  a  turning  point.  Daniels  gives  a  long  list  of  re- 
ligious practices  signalizing  the  simultaneous  initia- 
tion of  youths  into  manhood  and  into  the  mysteries 
and  covenants  of  religion.1  One  of  the  most  beauti- 
ful and  instructive  examples  among  the  North 
American  Indians  may  be  added  to  Daniels's  collec- 
tion. The  custom  prevails  among  many  tribes. 
When  an  Omaha  boy,  for  instance,  arrives  at  puberty 
he  is  sent  forth  into  the  wilderness  to  fast  in  solitude 
for  four  days.  To  develop  self-control,  he  is  pro- 
vided with  bow  and  arrows,  but  is  forbidden  to  kill 
any  creature.  Arrived  on  the  mountains,  he  lifts  up 
his  voice  to  the  Great  Spirit  in  a  song  that  has  been 
sung  under  such  circumstances  from  before  the  time 

1  "  The  New  Life,"  American  Journal  of  Psychology •,  vi,  6iff. 
48 


RELIGIOUS  AWAKENING 

that  the  white  man  first  set  foot  upon  these  shores. 
The  words  of  the  song  are,  "God!  here,  poor  and 
needy,  I  stand!"  The  melody  is  so  soulful,  so  ap- 
pealingly  prayerful,  that  one  can  scarcely  believe  it 
to  be  of  barbarous  origin.  Yet  what  miracles  may 
not  religious  feeling  work?  The  boy  is  waiting,  in 
fact,  for  a  vision  from  on  high — a  revelation  to  be 
vouchsafed  to  him  personally  and  to  show  what  his 
life  is  to  be,  whether  that  of  hunter,  or  of  warrior,  or 
of  medicine  man,  etc.  Do  you  not  perceive  how  the 
very  same  impulses  sway  both  the  Indian  boy  and 
the  boy  of  civilization  ?  Here  is  the  desire  to  come 
into  personal  relations  with  the  divinity;  here  is  the 
facing  of  ultimate  mystery  and  of  destiny ;  here  is  the 
most  troublesome  problem  of  youth — that  of  the  life- 
work. 

The  religious  awakening  at  this  period  of  life 
comes  in  all  sorts  of  ways.  Not  infrequently  it  is 
spontaneous,  and  altogether  independent  of  revival 
influences  or  other  pressure  from  the  outside.  One 
young  lady  relates  that,  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  while 
she  was  walking  in  a  neighbor's  garden,  suddenly 
the  thought  came  to  her  that  she  had  passed  from 
death  to  life.  There  were  no  especial  emotional 
manifestations,  yet  this  event  she  has  always  looked 
upon  as  a  decisive  one.  In  general,  at  this  age  the 
child's  ordinary  religious  customs  and  beliefs  as- 
sume new  aspects.  They  become  matters  of  greater 
moment,  more  vitally  interesting,  more  full  of  feeling. 

49 


, 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

The  ordinary  services  of  the  church  or  the  ordinary 
acts  of  devotion  may  become  fraught  with  the  most 
weighty  import.  In  a  word,  the  soil  is  now  pre- 
pared for  new  growth,  whether  this  bursts  forth  sud- 
denly or  whether  it  makes  its  appearance  in  a  more 
gradual  fashion.  Let  us  analyze  this  soil  still  further. 

Religious  Feelings  of  Youth. 

Starbuck  found  fear  of  death,  hell,  etc.,  in  only 
fifteen  per  cent  of  his  cases,1  and  with  this  my  own 
results  are  in  striking  agreement.  They  may  be  con- 
veniently exhibited  in  the  following  table  of 

FEELINGS  ACCOMPANYING  ADOLESCENT  AWAK- 
ENING. 


Men. 

Women. 

Total. 

49 

'i 

13 
16 

24 

3 
5 

2 

5 

73 

20 

»3 

15 

21 

Cases  in  which  fear  of  God's  wrath,  of  death,  hell,  etc.,  is 

Reporting  sorrow  for  sins  known  to  have  been  committed.. 

Total  number  reporting  sorrow,  overlappings  subtracted.  .. 

These  figures  are  interesting  as  respects  both  fear 
and  sorrow  for  sin.  To  begin  with  fear,  it  should 
be  noted  that  in  7  of  the  cases  included  in  the  above 
table  (5  men,  2  women)  the  fear  was  distinctly  char- 
acterized as  slight,  insignificant,  etc.  Therefore,  the 
number  of  cases  in  which  fear  played  any  significant 
part  cannot  be  more  than  13  (12  men,  i  woman),  or 
less  than  eighteen  per  cent. 

Again,  it  is  evident  that  the  sorrow  which  these 

1  American  Journal  of  Psychology,  ix,  281. 
50 


RELIGIOUS  AWAKENING 

youths  experienced  in  their  struggles  toward  the  light 
was  more  often  an  indefinite  something  than  that 
which  expresses  a  consciously  sinful  past.  It  was 
interesting  to  question  the  persons  from  whom  these 
answers  were  received  as  to  just  what  they  were 
sorry  for;  and  it  became  more  evident  than  the  fig- 
ures make  it  that  something  deeper  in  us  than  mere 
sorrow  for  wrong  deeds  brings  to  the  religious  de- 
cision. One  young  man  remarks,  "I  never  realized 
until  after  my  conversion  that  I  was  a  rebel  against 
God."  Furthermore,  only  twenty-seven  per  cent  re- 
port any  sorrow  at  all.  From  this  it  becomes  evident 
that,  in  the  case  of  young  persons  brought  up  under 
existing  religious  conditions,  the  incitements  to  a  reli- 
gious life  are  far  from  being  all  of  a  negative  sort. 

What,  then,  are  the  characteristic  feelings  of  an 
adolescent  when  he  experiences  a  religious  awaken- 
ing ?  For  the  most  part,  they  are  too  inarticulate  to 
be  described  under  any  of  the  ordinary  rubrics  of 
emotion.  A  mental  burden,  a  sense  of  unrest,  dis- 
satisfaction with  self,  a  vague  lack,  a  general  dis- 
content, a  feeling  of  wanting  something  and  wanting 
to  be  something  that  is  not  clear  to  one's  self — this 
comes  as  near  as  anything  to  describing  the  spon- 
taneous feelings.  Of  course,  if  a  person  who  feels 
thus  is  told  how  to  name  his  feelings,  whether  as  a 
sense  of  sin,  burden  of  guilt,  or  otherwise,  he  is  likely 
to  adopt  a  definite  phraseology.  But  when  we  secure 

careful  descriptions  we  are  most  likely  to  find  that 

5i 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

the  emotions  themselves  were  far  less  definite  than 
the  terms  seem  to  imply.  In  spite  of  this  misleading 
tendency  in  terminology  the  number  reporting  fear 
or  sense  of  sin  was  very  small. 

It  thus  appears  that  the  soil  of  adolescent  religious- 
ness, as  far  as  the  feelings  are  concerned,  is  an  un- 
defined sense  of  incompleteness,  a  tantalizing  aware- 
ness of  something  as  belonging  to  one's  true  self,  but 
not  yet  realized  in  one's  self.  In  older  persons  we 
naturally  look  for  something  more  definite,  but  in 
the  case  of  religiously  trained  youth  like  those  now 
under  scrutiny  such  definiteness  is  not  characteristic. 

A  Hint  for  the  Philosophy  of  Religion. 

We  could  not,  if  we  would,  disguise  from  ourselves 
how  remarkably  these  religious  feelings  mirror  the 
entire  physical  and  mental  condition  during  the  mid- 
dle years  of  adolescence.  The  child,  as  we  have  seen, 
is  passing  into  a  new  state  of  existence  which  noth- 
ing in  his  previous  experiences  enables  him  to  con- 
strue in  advance.  Something  belonging  to  him,  yet 
unknown,  is  dimly  revealing  its  mysteries.  All  about 
him  and  in  him  is  mystery.  He  is  more  than  he  can 
understand,  yet  he  apprehends  more  than  he  can  ex- 
press. His  whole  organism,  physical  and  mental,  is 
in  a  state  of  unrest,  instability,  incompleteness.  This 
is  the  situation.  It  is  a  dawn  through  mists,  but  such 
rays  as  emerge  focus  themselves  in  religious  long- 
ings. 

52 


RELIGIOUS  AWAKENING 

Is  there  need  to  utter  again  the  warning  that  all 
this  is  as  consonant  with  a  spiritual  philosophy  as 
with  materialism  ?  Surely  the  day  has  passed  when 
a  materialistic  or  any  other  ontology  can  be  inferred 
from  the  assumption  that  man  is  a  psycho-physical 
organism.  Least  of  all  should  they  who  believe  that 
"the  Word  was  made  flesh"  stumble  at  any  evidence 
of  correlation  between  religious  phenomena  and  the 
phenomena  of  the  bodily  life.  It  has  long  been  rec- 
ognized and  preached  that  dyspepsia  is  a  foe  to  re- 
ligious joy;  why,  then,  should  it  seem  strange  that 
physical  adolescence  should  have  its  own  peculiar 
correlate  in  certain  tendencies  in  the  spiritual  nature  ? 
Does  not  Paul  himself  teach  us  that  "that  is  not  first 
which  is  spiritual,  but  that  which  is  natural"  (that 
is,  animal  or  sensuous)  ;  "then  that  which  is  spirit- 
ual ?"  Permit  a  homely  illustration.  When  it  is  de- 
sirable that  the  fire  in  a  furnace  should  burn  more 
briskly  we  open  the  draught  door,  and  thereby  admit 
the  oxygen  which  has  all  along  been  enveloping  the 
furnace  and  only  waiting  for  an  opportunity  to  be 
used  in  the  work  of  combustion.  So  the  physical 
changes  occurring  at  adolescence,  while  they  do  not 
produce  religion,  do,  nevertheless,  open  new  doors 
of  impressibility  whereby  the  ever-present  divine 
Spirit  may  enter  the  mind  and  heart  more  fully  than 
ever  before. 

Nay,  we  may  even  turn  to  the  account  of  a  spirit- 
ual philosophy  of  religion  the  same  facts  which  seem 

53 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

at  first  sight  to  threaten  such  a  view.  For  adoles- 
cence furnishes  a  fitting  occasion  for  asking  again  the 
old  question,  "What  is  man  ?"  It  is  now  that  all  the 
human  capacities  are  stirred  up  and  come  to  spon- 
taneous expression.  This,  then,  is  a  good  time  for 
observing  human  nature  in  its  simplest  forms  and 
components.  What,  then,  is  man?  Answer  this 
question  in  any  way  that  leaves  out  the  religious 
manifestations  of  arrival  at  adult  life,  and  you  beg 
the  answer  by  ignoring  the  most  palpable  facts.  But 
include  all  the  facts,  and  then  you  find  the  conclusion 
most  natural  that  man  is  essentially  a  religious  being, 
and  that  some  personal  touch  with  the  divine  must 
be  included  in  complete  humanity. 

Man  is  a  religious  animal  just  as  surely  as  he  is  a 
social  animal;  and  the  possibility  of  society  comes 
into  being  in  the  closest  connection  with  the  new 
possibilities  of  religiousness.  The  two  instincts  are, 
moreover,  curiously  blended  and  interwoven.  If  it 
is  obvious  that  man  requires  family  affection,  it  is 
also  manifest  that  a  closely  related  instinct  leads  him 
on  to  those  higher  social  relations  that  culminate  in 
worship. and  divine  communion. 

If  there  be  a  heavenly  Father  who  yearns  for  fel- 
lowship with  his  children,  what  more  effective 
method  could  there  be  of  satisfying  that  yearning 
than  to  attach  to  adolescence  an  appetite  for  the  in- 
finite— the  infinitely  true,  beautiful,  and  good?  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  such  appetite  for  the  infinite  is  just 

54 


RELIGIOUS  AWAKENING 

the  most  characteristic  mark  of  mental  adolescence. 
A  passion  for  absolute  truth,  indubitable  certainty, 
perfect  righteousness,  all  that  is  most  real — this  is 
the  mark  of  it.  Then,  too,  there  comes  to  adoles- 
cence a  hint  of  the  infinite  in  the  form  of  beauty.  "If 
I  were  to  spend  a  day  in  my  own  way,"  writes  one 
just  emerging  from  this  period,  "I  would  go  off  to 
some  beautiful  spot  where  I  could  be  all  alone,  and 
there  I  would  try  to  forget  everything  that  I  had 
left  behind,  and  when  it  became  night  I  would  love 
to  look  up  into  the  sky.  It  seems  as  though  I  could 
see  God's  perfection  there,  and  make  it  mine."  Sen- 
timental, doubtless;  in  other  words,  immature;  but 
the  question  is  a  fair  one  whether  life  does  not  grow 
larger  and  truth  come  nearer  in  proportion  as  we 
give  scope  to  these  uncorrupted  impulses  of  youth. 

55 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 


CHAPTER  II 
A  Study  of  Some  Adolescent  Difficulties 

I  ONCE  asked  a  Catholic  priest  how  he  dealt  with 
certain  adolescent  religious  difficulties.  His  reply 
showed  that  he  had  studied  the  whole  question  from 
the  standpoints  of  physiology,  psychology,  and 
heredity,  as  well  as  theology,  and  that  he  varied  his 
treatment  of  the  cases  according  to  the  individual's 
symptoms.  Some  persons  he  controlled  simply  by 
authority;  others  he  comforted  as  a  mother  soothes 
a  restless  infant;  still  others  he  sent  to  a  physician. 
There,  thought  I,  is  one  who  has  beheld  the  ideal  of  an 
art  of  religious  culture  drawn  directly  from  scientific 
knowledge.  How  different  is  this  from  the  ready- 
made  methods  that  ignore  differences  of  sex,  of  age, 
of  disposition,  and  of  physical  condition ! 

He  who  aspires  to  be  a  pastor  should  doubtless 
aim  to  understand  and  sympathize  with  the  religious 
difficulties  of  persons  of  all  ages  and  conditions.  It 
would  be  entirely  in  place  to  enter  a  plea  for  the 
understanding  of  childhood,  or  of  mature  life,  or  of 
old  age;  but  all  these  are  to-day  better  understood 
and  cared  for  than  the  remaining  period  of  life — 
that  of  adolescence.  Furthermore,  when  maturity  is 
reached  it  soon  acquires  such  a  stock  of  experience 

and  such  a  habit  of  dealing  with  its  own  problems 

56 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

as  to  differentiate  its  condition  very  sharply  from 
that  of  the  awkward  and  helpless  state  of  youth. 
Maturity  takes  an  interest  in  childhood,  too,  that  it 
strangely  withholds  from  youth.  And  so,  on  all  ac- 
counts, it  is  that  little-understood  creature,  the  youth, 
whose  difficulties  have  first  claim  upon  the  practical  f 
psychology  of  the  religious  life.  That  youths  of  C 
both  sexes  have  many  peculiar  and  characteristic  re- 
ligious embarrassments  will  be  quickly  discovered 
by  anyone  who  secures  their  confidence  sufficiently 
to  know  them  as  they  are. 

This  last  remark  points  to  a  general  difficulty  for 
both  the  adolescent  and  his  spiritual  adviser,  namely, 
the  tendency  to  secretiveness.  It  is  true,  no  doubt, 
that  youth  easily  assumes  an  air  of  self-sufficiency, 
independence,  even  self-assertiveness ;  but,  as  often 
as  not,  this  is  a  weapon  for  self-defense  adopted  by 
those  who  do  not  feel  altogether  at  home  or  alto- 
gether certain  of  themselves.  It  is  like  the  air  of  con- 
fidence assumed  by  an  explorer  upon  meeting  a  band 
of  savages  whose  intentions  toward  him  he  never- 
theless distrusts.  The  inner  self  of  the  youth  shrinks 
from  revealing  itself,  yet  it  longs  to  reveal  itself  if 
only  it  can  be  certain  of  being  understood.  Stiff- 
necked  and  obstinately  self-contained  toward  all  at- 
tempts to  drive  or  force  it,  the  heart  of  youth  is 
nevertheless  more  docile  than  that  of  a  child  toward 
one  who  understands  it  and  is  willing  to  impart  to 
it  the  guidance  that  it  sorely  needs. 

57 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

Intellectual  Difficulties. 

As  the  intellectual  difficulties  are  the  ones  that 
come  most  freely  to  the  surface  it  is  well  to  begin 
with  them.  Let  us  inquire  into  the  extent  and  the 
nature  of  the  perturbing  effect  of  the  growing  intel- 
lectual life  upon  the  religious  states  of  mind.  It  is 
noteworthy  that  several  persons  of  decided  intellec- 
tual independence  report  that  changes  in  their  doc- 
trinal views  have  produced  little  or  no  effect  upon 
their  sense  of  personal  relationship  to  God ;  but  it  is 
certain  that  the  number  who  do  suffer  from  this 
cause,  particularly  among  young  men,  is  very  large. 
Of  the  persons  examined  by  myself,  twenty-three 
per  cent  of  the  men  and  eight  and  one  third  per  cent 
of  the  women  report  such  troubles  growing  out  of 
theoretical  doubts.  Starbuck  fixes  the  average  age 
of  the  doubt  period  at  about  eighteen  years  for  males 
and  about  fifteen  for  females.1 

It  is  customary  to  treat  such  doubts  in  one  of  two 
ways :  either  to  decry  them  as  a  departure  or  threat- 
ened departure  from  pure  religion  itself,  or  else  to 
praise  them  as  an  evidence  of  religious  growth. 
Those  who  take  the  former  view  are  content,  as  a 
general  rule,  to  exhort  the  young  not  to  allow  any- 
thing to  loosen  their  grasp  upon  that  which  was  de- 
livered to  them  in  childhood.  Those  who  take  the 
more  favorable  view  of  doubts,  on  the  other  hand, 
exhort  the  young  to  keep  their  eyes  ever  open  to  the 

1  American  Journal  of  Psychology^  ix,  92. 
58 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

rising  sun  of  truth  and  not  to  fear  any  possible  ef- 
fect upon  their  religious  condition.  From  both  sides 
there  sometimes  proceed  arguments  intended  to  set- 
tle the  views  of  the  doubter  in  one  way  or  the  other. 
Thus  the  everyday  treatment  of  doubts  consists 
chiefly  in  a  very  general  appeal  to  the  sense  of  loy- 
alty or  to  the  feeling  of  independence,  together  with 
more  or  less  use  of  specifically  intellectual  means. 

The  defect  in  most  of  this  procedure  lies  in  the 
tendency  to  ignore  the  depth  and  extent  of  the  causes 
of  intellectual  unrest.  What  is  needed  is  the  psycho- 
logical point  of  view  in  addition  to  the  merely  logical 
and  what  may  be  called  the  merely  spiritual.  It  is 
necessary  to  see  in  the  doubt  period  of  youth  not 
merely  a  perplexed  process  of  reasoning,  not  merely 
a  weakening  of  trust  or  of  obedience,  but  rather  a 
symptom  of  the  entire  psychical,  yes,  and  physical, 
condition  at  the  time.  Some  sort  of  intellectual 
movement  and  ferment  is  the  natural  correlate  of  the 
new  birth  of  the  physical  organism.  To  see  with  the 
eyes  of  childhood  is  no  longer  possible,  even  if  it  were 
desirable.  Reconstruction  must  come  in  one  form  or 
another — the  world  and  life  and  eternity  must  all  be 
clothed  in  new  ethical,  aesthetic,  and  intellectual 
forms.  Whether  this  transformation  shall  involve 
the  clouding  of  religious  feelings  or  the  relaxing  of 
religious  activities  depends  partly  upon  childhood 
instruction,  partly  upon  present  conditions  and  in- 
fluences. 

59 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

i 

It  is  clear,  of  course,  that  a  child  should  not  be 

taught  anything  that  he  is  likely  to  regard  as  false 
as  soon  as  he  grows  up.  The  amount  of  mental 
agony,  not  to  say  religious  havoc,  wrought  by  trying 
to  forestall  in  childhood  instruction  the  questionings 
that  must  come  to  every  adult  before  he  has  a  right 
to  call  his  opinions  his  own  cannot  be  measured,  but 
only  guessed.  "O,  why,  why,"  said  a  young  profes- 
sional man,  "did  my  parents  try  to  equip  me  with  a 
doctrinal  system  in  childhood  ?  I  supposed  that  the 
whole  system  must  be  believed  on  pain  of  losing  my 
religion  altogether.  And  so,  when  I  began  to  doubt 
some  points,  I  felt  obliged  to  throw  all  overboard. 
I  have  found  my  way  back  to  positive  religion,  but 
by  what  a  long  and  bitter  struggle !"  It  requires  very 
little  knowledge  of  the  child  mind  to  enable  one  to 
perceive  that  children  are  simply  not  yet  competent 
to  consider  the  problems  that  systems  of  belief  un- 
dertake to  settle.  What  appeals  as  a  profound  prob- 
lem to  the  adolescent,  with  his  wider  intimations  of 
the  meanings  of  life,  is  a  mere  form  of  words,  or 
little  more,  up  to  that  time.  In  other  words,  it  is 
simply  impossible  to  provide  a  child  with  real  solu- 
tions of  the  problems  of  life.  The  attempt  to  do  so 
is  doomed  to  failure  in  one  or  more  of  these  direc- 
tions :  either  the  child  is  impervious  to  the  attempted 
instruction,  or  too  early  dogmatizing  causes  an  arrest 
of  intellectual  development  in  matters  of  religion,  or 

the  instruction  is  so  misunderstood,  and  so  inade- 

60 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

quately  understood  or  so  inherently  inadequate,  that 
the  work  will  have  to  be  all  done  over  again — pos- 
sibly with  the  sweating  of  blood. 

But  neither  is  the  adolescent,  in  the  earlier  years 
of  this  period,  quite  ready  to  settle  these  problems. 
The  moment  of  taking  a  plunge  into  cold  water  is 
hardly  favorable  for  making  even  a  guess  as  to  its 
temperature.  Then,  too,  the  tendency  to  conceit  re- 
ferred to  in  the  last  chapter  brings  in  its  train  a  new 
and  peculiar  religious  difficulty.  In  most  matters 
the  conceit  of  youth  is  finally  rubbed  away  by  the 
normal  frictions  of  life.  But  if  that  conceit  attaches 
itself  to  a  knowledge  of  religious  dogmas,  or  a  sup- 
posed knowledge  of  them,  then  the  youth  assumes 
the  authority  of  the  Almighty  in  support  of  his  intel- 
lectual narrowness  and  stubbornness.  And  what  is 
more  pitiful  in  the  whole  theological  world  than  the 
imitations  of  thought  that  proceed  from  men  thus 
shut  up  to  prematurity  ? 

It  is  a  recognized  pedagogical  principle  that  each 
branch  of  instruction  should  be  introduced  at  just 
the  point  where  the  child's  mind  has  a  natural  in- 
stinct for  it.  The  presence  of  such  an  instinct  is 
known  by  the  child's  taking  an  interest  in  the  sub- 
ject from  its  intrinsic  qualities  and  not  because  of 
extrinsic  incitements,  and  also  by  a  concretely  vital 
as  distinguished  from  merely  mechanical  or  me- 
moriter  grasp  of  the  subject-matter.  Applying  this 

principle  to  the  religious  training  of  children,  wel 
5  61 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

should  include  a  great  deal  of  religious  activity,  but 
very  little  religious  theory.  The  cultivation  of  re- 
ligious habits  is  perfectly  feasible,  and  so  is  the  cul- 
tivation of  some  of  the  simpler  religious  emotions. 
Facts  of  religious  history  will  be  abundantly  assimi- 
lated in  so  far  as  they  are  presented  in  the  form  of 
the  story.  Thus  the  whole  world  of  the  child  may 
be  rilled  with  what  a  child  can  grasp  of  the  divine. 
The  religious  life  may  be  made  a  natural  and  joyous 
outpouring  of  his  energy,  and  all  without  communi- 
cating to  him  the  logical  basis  upon  which,  possibly, 
the  parent  believes  such  a  life  can  be  justified  or  de- 
manded. This  is,  in  fact,  but  another  application  of 
one  of  the  most  important  truths  that  dominate  the 
generation  in  which  we  live — the  truth  that  in  all 
the  profoundest  practical  interests  the  application  of 
logic  comes  ex  post  facto;  we  do  not  first  discover 
the  true  life  by  rational  processes  and  then  proceed 
to  live  it,  but  we  somehow  manage  to  live  the  life 
that  expresses  our  deepest  selves  and  afterward  pro- 
ceed to  see  why  it  is  reasonable. 

The  same  principles  hold  for  the  adolescent  years, 
but  with  a  change  of  application  growing  out  of  the 
new  instincts  and  points  of  view  that  now  emerge. 
To  the  child  it  is  possible  to  say,  when  difficult  theo- 
retical questions  come  up,  "I  am  not  certain,"  or 
"There  are  differences  of  opinion  on  that  point ;"  but 
even  in  the  earlier  part  of  adolescence  there  cannot 

be  such  easy  postponement,  for  the  questions  are  now 

62 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

becoming  real  expressions  of  a  budding  instinct. 
Nevertheless,  the  youth  is  almost  sure  to  ask  for 
more  than  he  can  possibly  assimilate,  and  so  he  is 
likely  to  be  contented  with  much  less  than  he  de- 
mands. Much  of  his  fever  will  be  allayed  if  he  be- 
comes convinced  that  his  advisers  are  withholding 
nothing  from  him  and  yet  insisting  upon  nothing. 
What  he  most  wants,  after  all,  is  room. 

The  psychological  root  of  this  state  of  mind  is 
nothing  less  than  a  thirst  for  the  absolute.  We  shall 
presently  see  that  this  same  thirst  manifests  itself  in 
the  conscience  as  a  desire  for  absolute  rectitude,  ab- 
solute self-sacrifice,  and  all  else  that  belongs  to  an 
absolute  ideal.  In  the  sphere  of  thought  its  mani- 
festation is  a  consuming  appetite  to  know  the  deepest 
truth.  With  this,  as  a  natural  corollary,  comes  a 
tendency  to  dissent  and  nonconformity.  The  adoles- 
cent feels  that  no  temporizing  will  d9,  that  authority 
is  out  of  place,  that  uncertainty  is  torture.  Of  course, 
this  attitude  marks  an  immature  mind ;  yet,  in  the 
culture  of  the  religious  nature  much  depends  upon 
our  perceiving  that  that  which  seeks  to  satisfy  itself 
in  this  imperious  manner  is  a  divine  thirst. 

Incidentally,  it  may  be  worth  remarking  that 
youth's  mental  aspirations  are  the  very  sap  of  the 
tree  of  knowledge.  It  is  of  the  utmost  value  to  the 
whole  cause  of  truth  that  the  mind,  before  attaining 
the  relative  fixity  of  maturity,  should  for  a  time  as- 
sume an  utterly  free  and  questioning  attitude  toward 

63 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

everything-.  Without  this,  religious  thought  would 
speedily  petrify.  Indeed,  as  soon  as  thought  be- 
comes organized  into  a  system  its  future  growth 
depends  upon  its  facing  henceforth  the  continuous 
procession  of  uncompromising  youthful  eyes. 

We  are  not,  then,  to  expect  intellectual  rest  and 
contentment  in  youth.  It  is  not  to  be  assumed  that 
we  can  satisfy  all  the  questionings  that  arise.  These 
questions  are  life-questions;  their  solution  cannot  be 
put  into  a  formula,  but  can  only  be  approximated 
through  developing  experience.  Much — most — that 
the  youth  demands  to  have  settled  at  once  can  only 
be  lived  into  as  life  unfolds  its  joys  and  sorrows  and 
aspirations.  What,  then,  can  be  done  for  the  doubt- 
ing youth?  We  can  correct  the  plain  misappre- 
hensions under,,  which  he  is  laboring  as  to  what 
Christians  actually  believe;  we  can  replace  foolish 
questions  with  wiser  ones ;  we  can  guide  his  reading  in 
the  treasuries  of  the  world's  thought ;  we  can  frankly 
admit  our  inability  to  answer  all  his  questions,  and 
we  can  tell  him  that  we  ourselves  have  passed 
through  similar  difficulties.  'And  we  can  add  to  this 
intellectual  food  something  not  less  needful ;  for  the 
trouble  of  his  mind  is  not  merely  that  he  does  not 
know  this  or  that,  but  rather  that  he  fancies  that  his 
uncertainty  involves  some  disloyalty  or  other  fault 
of  heart  or  of  will.  He  must  therefore  learn,  in  a 
practical  way,  that  knowing  Christian  doctrine  is  not 

the  same  as  being  grounded  in  the  Christian  life.    He 

64 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

v  y 

should  by  all  means  be  induced  to  be  active  in  those 
forms  of  religious  living  that  still  appeal  to  him  at 
all.  There  is,  in  fact,  a  fallacy  in  his  reasoning.  He 
fancies  that  the  practical  religious  life  stands  or  falls 
according  as  we  accept  or  reject  certain  explanations 
of  and  reasons  for  it.  But,  as  before  remarked,  just 
the  reverse  of  this  is  true ;  the  life  comes  first  because 
it  answers  to  our  inarticulate  needs,  and  the  fact  that 
it  does  so  answer  is  sufficient  practical  justification 
for  its  continuance.  Hence,  religious  activity  and 
religious  comforts  may  abide  at  the  same  time  that 
the  intellect  is  uncertain  of  how  all  this  fits  into  any 
logical  structure.  Thus  it  comes  to  pass  that  the 
greatest  thing  we  can  do  for  the  doubting  youth  is 
to  induce  him  to  give  free  exercise  to  the  religious 
instinct.  Let  him  not  say  what  he  does  not  actually 
believe ;  let  him  not  compromise  himself  in  any  way ; 
but  it  is  always  certain  that  he  still  believes;  feels, 
and  aspires  enough  to  give  him  a  place  among  reli- 
gious people. 

Furthermore,  whenever  theoretical  doubts  become 
an  occasion  for  pronouncedly  morbid  states,  such  as 
deep  worry,  melancholy,  needless  self-condemnation, 
or  fanaticism  of  any  sort,  diligent  inquiry  should  be 
made  into  the  physical  condition.  When  such  states 
are  found  in  young  persons  of  good  moral  character 
it  is  safe  to  assume  that  they  are  less  a  product  of 
logic  than  of  nerves.  Of  course,  the  youth  can  give 
what  is  to  him  cogent  proof  why  he  should  worry  or 

65 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

fear  or  be  sad,  but  such  reasoning  is  really  little  more 
than  a  false  description  of  a  mere  mood.  The  occa- 
sion for  it  is  almost  certain  to  be  either  some  dis- 
turbed function,  as  of  digestion,  or  a  general  state  of 
nerve  fatigue.  What  is  meant  by  nerve  fatigue,  how 
it  is  commonly  induced,  and  how  it  is  to  be  treated 
will  demand  a  section  for  itself  after  certain  other 
difficulties  have  been  traced  to  the  same  source. 

From  what  has  been  said  it  may  be  concluded  that, 
in  order  to  prescribe  for  the  religious  difficulties  of 
the  adolescent  intellect,  one  should  first  respect  them 
because  of  their  deep  source  and  significance.  Per- 
haps the  worst  calamity  that  can  befall  the  doubter 
is  not  to  be  understood  by  those  to  whom  he  looks 
for  guidance.  What  would  we  say  of  a  doctor  of 
medicine  who  authoritatively  prescribed  for  a  dis- 
ease that  he  did  not  understand  ?  That  ought  we  to 
think  of  the  unskilled  spiritual  guide.  No  process  of 
repression,  no  mere  evasion,  not  even  rigorous  logic, 
will  generally  suffice.  Indeed,  it  is  not  unlikely  that 
your  callow  doubter  has  hit  upon  the  ultimate  mys- 
teries of  existence  which  no  theologian  or  philoso- 
pher claims  fully  to  solve.  Very  likely  he  has  pene- 
trated to  real  doctrinal  difficulties  which  theologians 
dispute  about  among  themselves.  In  any  case,  that 
which  makes  the  matter  so  serious  to  the  doubting 
youth  is  a  divine  discontent  with  incompleteness 
which  proclaims  that  we  are  not  mere  creatures  of 

time.    That  he  should  be  strenuous  to  "know  what 

66 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

man  and  God  is"  is  an  advantage  and  a  privilege. 
His  demands  cannot  be  met,  of  course,  but  it  is  pos- 
sible to  give  him  something  greater  and  better  than 
the  most  closely  woven  syllogisms — the  sympathy  of 
a  sincere  soul  that  has  nothing  to  conceal  from  him. 
"Show  me  the  Father,"  says  the  youth,  "and  it  will 
suffice  me."  The  wise  friend  will  reply,  as  Jesus  did, 
by  showing  a  human  self. 

The  Adolescent  Conscience. 

We  have  seen  how,  when  the  appetite  for  the  abso- 
lute awakens,  youth  begins  to  scorn  all  artificiality 
and  all  compromise,  and  how  it  turns  critic  of  itself 
and  ofttimes  indulges  in  severe  self-condemnation 
for  not  attaining  the  ideal  at  a  bound.  Self-exalta- 
tion and  self-abasement  may  go  hand  in  hand,  the 
same  person*  being  stiff-necked  and  dictatorial  in  his 
relations  to  others,  but  a  cowering,  timid  creature  in 
the  presence  of  his  own  conscience.  But  the  two 
phenomena  have  a  common  root,  since  he  practices 
toward  himself  the  same  intolerance  that  he  shows 
toward  others.  He  becomes  solicitous  for  both  the 
general  principles  of  a  good  life  and  the  details  of 
his  conduct.  Many  youths  are  so  fearful  of  commit- 
ting the  slightest  untruthfulness  that  they  studiously 
preface  their  statements  concerning  even  the  most 
ordinary  matters  of  fact  with  some  such  qualifier  as 
"I  suppose,"  or  "I  think  that."  They  long  to  be  ex- 
actly right,  and  to  know  that  they  are  right. 

67 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

A  common  form  of  adolescent  casuistry  is  to  as- 
sume a  major  premise  expressing  some  aspect  of 
duty  or  of  the  ideal,  and  then  inquire  whether  a  given 
act  can,  in  perfect  strictness,  be  included  under  it. 
There  is  no  end  to  the  self-torment  that  results.  A 
girl  of  twelve  had  it  so  impressed  upon  her  mind  that 
one  should  never  say  anything  bad  about  another 
that  she  became  afraid  to  speak  of  anyone  in  any  way 
for  fear  her  words  might  be  wrongly  interpreted. 
At  times,  however,  she  felt  called  upon  to  say  good 
things,  even  though  she  knew  that  they  were  not 
true!  The  major  premise  is  frequently  some  ac- 
cepted maxim,  as,  "Whatever  is  worth  doing  at  all 
is  worth  doing  well."  This  is  now  carried  into  con- 
duct with  absurd  intemperance.  Thus,  a  farmer's 
son  who  was  running  a  reaping  machine  got  into  the 
way  of  stopping  his  team  and  going  slavishly  back  to 
pull  up  every  wisp  of  grain  that  the  machine  had 
missed.  This  he  did,  not  for  the  sake  of  saving  the 
grain,  but  only  to  preserve  intact  a  certain  abstract 
ideal  of  completeness.  A  girl  took  a  vow,  shortly 
after  her  conversion,  to  pray  for  the  unconverted  at 
ten  o'clock  each  forenoon.  Believing  that  kneeling 
was  essential  to  the  fulfillment  of  her  vow,  and  being 
in  school  at  that  hour,  she  ha'd  to  face  the  problem  of 
how  to  kneel  in  prayer  in  the  schoolroom  among  her 
fellow-pupils.  This  is  the  expedient  she  adopted: 
At  ten  o'clock  each  morning  she  would  drop  her  pen- 
cil on  the  floor  underneath  her  desk,  and  while  in  the 

68 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

act  of  picking  it  up  would  manage  to  touch  her  knees 
to  the  floor  in  a  momentary  prayer ! 

To  us  these  are  trivialities,  yet  to  the  youth  they 
seem  to  contain  the  very  issues  of  life.  And  certainly 
they  do  express  his  reverence  for  some  vast  and  daz- 
zling ideal  that  has  appeared  upon  his  horizon.  Not 
infrequently  self-sacrifice  or  self-annihilation  be- 
comes the  most  beautiful  and  commanding  thing  in 
the  world,  and  so,  perhaps,  there  comes  a  resolution 
to  be  an  ascetic  or  a  martyr.  I  have  had  young  men 
tell  me  that  when  the  fact  of  the  brotherhood  of  men 
first  dawned  upon  them  their  warm  beds  tortured 
them  into  sleeplessness  thfough  the  thought  that 
some  of  their  brothers  were  cold.  Here  the  trivial 
and  the  sublime  mingle  together;  for,  though  the 
young  man's  sleeplessness  avails  not  to  solve  the 
ancient  problem  of  the  rich  and  the  poor,  yet  it  is 
precisely  because  there  are  always  coming  to  adult- 
hood those  who  are  capable  of  such  feelings  that  we 
can  hope  for  progress  toward  the  righting  of  in- 
trenched wrong. 

It  is  evident  that  the  moral  training  of  youth  is  a 
decidedly  delicate  matter.  In  the  nature  of  the  case, 
what  sufficed  for  childhood  is  inadequate.  Mere 
rules,  traditions,  habits,  must  be  supplemented  or 
even  supplanted  by  personally  accepted  ideals. 
Nevertheless,  we  must  not  expect  mature  ideals  in 
those  who  are  in  every  other  way  immature.  The 
physical  stature  of  manhood  does  not  imply  even 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

physical  maturity ;  much  less  is  it  ground  for  expec- 
tation of  mature  conduct.  The  very  long  period  of 
immaturity  in  the  members  of  the  human  species  is 
precisely  the  opportunity  which  renders  possible  a 
superior  development  of  the  highest  faculties.  Awk- 
wardness in  conduct  must  be  expected  and  allowed 
for.  Furthermore,  unless  immaturity  in  moral  judg- 
ment were  understood,  tolerated,  and  sympathized 
with,  how  could  maturity  ever  be  reached?  There 
must  be  room  for  free  exercise  if  the  muscle  is  ever 
to  become  firm  and  symmetrical.  Try  to  force  upon 
conduct  what  the  judgment  has  not  approved  and 
you  will  probably  produce  revolt  toward  some  ex- 
treme that  would  otherwise  be  avoided ;  and  even  if 
you  succeed,  the  forcing  process  may  result  in  a  pre- 
mature stoppage  of  growth.  In  the  last  case  you 
produce  the  man  who  never  quite  makes  himself  fit 
into  life,  however  great  may  be  his  moral  earnest- 
ness. 

One  of  the  worst  faults  found  in  the  moral  culture 
of  youth  is  that  of  treating  questions  of  right  and 
wrong  in  such  a  way  as  to  heighten  the  youthful 
tendency  to  hyperconscientiousness.  The  adolescent 
conscience  can  easily  be  made  finical,  but  how  to 
make  it  more  robust  is  the  real  problem.  Ofttimes 
a  word  is  enough  to  produce  a  needlessly  troubled 
conscience,  to  plunge  it  into  the  depths  of  perplexed 
and  unnatural  self-examination;  but  to  develop 

health,  which  includes  at  once  sensitiveness  and  equi- 

70 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

librium  and  vigor, — this  calls  for  moral  art.  For 
youth  does  not  easily  understand  or  appreciate  that 
something  in  childhood  which  it  is  the  endeavor  of 
our  ripest  years  to  win  back.  It  is  well  expressed  in 
an  old  motto : 

"  Look  up  and  not  down ; 
Look  out  and  not  in  ; 
Look  forward  and  not  back, 
And  lend  a  hand." 

It  is  not  self-involution,  introspection,  self-examina- 
tion that  is  needed,  but  a  healthy  outward  glance, 
and  external  interests  that  call  out  the  best  powers. 
The  aim,  therefore,  should  be  not  so  much  stimula- 
tion as  guidance;  not  so  much  increased  feeling  as 
healthful  and  absorbing  activities;  not  subjective 
brooding,  but  rather  a  fitting  outlet  for  the  mysteri- 
ous longings  that  already  oppress  the  heart. 

This  brings  us  to  the  subject  of  the  morbid  or 
hypersensitive  conscience  in  youth,  its  causes,  symp- 
toms, and  treatment.  Some  of  its  causes,  such  as 
wrong  advice  regarding  the  point  of  view,  have  just 
been  mentioned.  But  outweighing  all  others  is  a 
physical  cause,  nerve  fatigue.  So  large  a  role,  in- 
deed, does  this  cause  play  in  the  whole  spiritual 
development  of  youth  that  it  must  have  a  special 
section. 

Religious  and  Moral  Effects  of  Nerve  Fatigue. 
Even  under  the  most  favorable  circumstances  the 

profound  character  of  the  a^loje^cent_change  puts  a 

" 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

heavy  burden  upon  the  nervous  system.  This  bur- 
den may  be  abnormally  increased  in  many  ways,  as, 
for  example,  too  much  study,  too  much  indoor  life, 
improper  food,  too  much  excitement,  irregular 
habits,  private  sexual  vice,  nagging  on  the  part  of 
parents  or  of  teachers,  rasping  relations  at  any  point. 
There  is  ground  for  a  suspicion  that  the  conditions 
under  which  a  vast  majority  of  adolescents  are  placed 
in  our  modern  ArnericanJife  tend  to  produce  a  state 
of  habitual  fatigue.  Among  these  grounds  may  be 
named  the  tendency  to  overload  the  common  school 
and  high  school  curriculum;  the  amount  of  social 
life  involving  late  hours,  excitement,  and  unwhole- 
some eating  and  drinking  permitted  to  young  adoles- 
cents, and  even  expected  of  them ;  the_multiplicity  of 
interests  that  crowd  out  simplicity  and  repose,  and, 
finally,  the  almost  feverish  intensity  with  which 
American  youth,  at  least,  enter  into  their  too  varied 
occupations.  It  would  scarcely  be  an  exaggeration 
to  assert  that  sixteen-year-old  girls  and  eighteen- 
year-old  boys  are  expected  to  live  two  lives  in  one — • 
the  life  of  students  and  the  life  of  men  and  women 
of  the  world.  We  all  know  what  this  leads  to  in 
those  whose  powers  of  resistance  are  under  the  aver- 
age, or  whose  scholarly  or  social  ambitions  lead  them 
into  more  than  the  ordinary  expenditure  of  vital  en- 
ergy. But  the  results  of  this  set  of  conditions  do  not 
stop  with  the  young  persons  who  break  down.  The 
others  also  meet  the  nemesis  of  nature  just  as  surely, 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

though  not  so  obviously.  The  consequences  enter 
into  the  whole  life,  and  may  end  only  with  the  life. 
Let  us  notice  briefly  how  moral  and  religious  inter- 
ests are  affected. 

For  our  purposes  the  essential  characteristic  of  a  < 
fatigued  nerve  is  its  increased  irri^abi)ii;v:  it  reacts  ^ 
to  less  than  the  normal  stimulus,  and  hence  more  or 
less  spasmodically.  For  example,  in  a  state  of  fa- 
tigue one  is  more  likely  to  start  at  small  noises; 
furthermore,  one's  reaction  is  likely  to  be  ill-directed, 
uncertain,  prolonged.  Let  the  same  cause  produce 
its  natural  effects  in  the  workings  of  the  intellect,  the 
feelings,  and  the  will,  and  we  shall  have,  among  other 
things,  an  important  group  of  morbid  moral  and 
religious  states.  The  following  may  be  enumerated 
as  examples :  worry,  despondency,  bad  temper,  emo- 
tionalism of  various  kinds,  oversensitiveness,  lack  of 
decision  in  small  matters,  morbid  introspection, 
hyperconscientiousness,  increased  susceptibility  to 
temptations  of  appetite  and  of  sex.  The  discussion 
of  what  are  called  temptations  will  be  postponed  to 
the  next  section.  Our  present  interest  is  to  notice 
the  influence  of  fatigue  in  producing  morbid  or 
hyperconscientiousness. 

Just  where  normal  sensitiveness  of  conscience 
leaves  off  and  abnormal  begins  cannot  always  be 
stated  with  certainty  in  particular  cases,  but  in  gen- 
eral when  the  sense  of  right  and  wrong  is  so  intense 
as  to  defeat  instead  of  promote  proper  conduct  we 

73 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

are  safe  in  calling  the  conscience  morbid.  Con- 
science is  morbid  when  trifles  are  magnified  into 
monsters,  when  debate  with  one's  self  as  to  what  is 
right  is  carried  to  the  point  of  self-blinding  or  of 
paralysis  of  decision,  and,  in  general,  when  anxiety 
about  right-doing  exhausts  the  energy  that  ought  to 
go  into  moral  action.  Then 

"  the  native  hue  of  resolution 
Is  sicklied  o'er  with  the  pale  cast  of  thought; 
And  enterprises  of  great  pith  and  moment 
With  this  regard  their  currents  turn  awry, 
And  lose  the  name  of  action." 

Here  are  a  few  examples  that  have  come  directly 
under  my  notice: 

A  girl  is  so  tortured  by  uncertainty  as  to  what  she 
was  created  for  that  she  lays  aside  her  usual  occupa- 
tions and  refuses  for  months  to  see  her  friends. 
Others  feel  so  keenly  the  demand  for  absolute  ac- 
curacy and  completeness  that  the  main  purpose  of 
action  is  defeated  by  their  slavish  attention  to  pre- 
liminaries or  to  details.  Thus  the  youth  already  re- 
ferred to  as  being  too  particular  in  running  his 
father's  reaper  adds  the  following  items  from  his  ex- 
perience: "If,  in  plowing  corn,  I  missed  a  weed,  I 
could  not  bear  to  leave  it,  and  so,  often  got  off  the 
plow  and,  going  back,  pulled  it  up.  Sometimes  I 
became  angry  instead  of  going  back,  and  then  vented 
my  rage  on  the  horses,  thinking  that  they  had  not 
walked  as  they  should.  Likewise  in  running  a  self- 

74 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

binder.  I  worked  myself  nearly  to  death  changing 
the  machine  for  'up'  and  'down'  grain  in  order  that 
every  scrap  should  be  gotten,  and  that  every  bundle 
should  be  bound  just  a  trifle  nearer  the  'butts'  than 
the  heads.  [Italics  are  in  every  case  his  own.]  If 
the  horses  went  into  the  grain,  thus  causing  the  ma- 
chine to  run  over  some  and  leave  it,  I  often  went  back 
and  pulled  it  up,  not  to  save  it,  but  'just  for  the  looks 
of  the  thing/  I  wanted  everything  to  run  abso- 
lutely perfectly,  and  if  it  did  not  I  was  perplexed 
and  fretted." 

Later,  when  the  same  young  man  was  preparing 
for  college,  he  neglected  his  health  and  his  religious 
and  social  life,  as  he  says,  "all  for  the  sake  of  being 
extremely  accurate  in  unimportant  details  in  geome- 
try, Latin,  and  Greek.  Also,  in  writing  essays,  I 
have  rewritten  many  pages  rather  than  scratch  out  a 
misplaced  dot  or  wrongly  crossed  't.'  During  these 
two  years  in  no  essay  did  I  ever  scratch  out  with  a 
knife  or  otherwise  anything,  no  matter  how  small, 
and  never  put  in  a  word  with  a  caret.  If  I  made  a 
mistake  I  rewrote  the  whole  page.  .  .  .  Practically, 
after  the  age  of  nineteen  I  was  not  troubled  with 
morbid  conscientiousness." 

Attention  may  be  called  to  three  things  in  this  ac- 
count :  First,  the  close^  affinity  between  this  form  of 
mojbid  conscientiousness  and  anger.  It  is  a  case  of 
what  is  popularly  called  "nerves."  That  is,  the 
n^rvous_system,  through  the  great  tax  placed  upon  it 

75 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

in  this  period  of  life  and  through  contributory  causes, 
such  as  special  fatigue  and  inadequate  nutrition,  is 
in  unstable  equilibrium,  and  ready  upon  trifling 
stimuli  to  tumble  over  either  in  the  form  of  anger, 
or  of  excessive  feeling,  or  of  motor  discharges  dis- 
proportionate to  the  occasion.  Second,  notice  that 
oversensitiveness  of  conscience  coalesces  with  "show- 
ing off,"  thus  revealing  very  clearly  the  sociological 
significance  of  the  whole  phenomenon.  The  boy  was 
overparticular,  not  to  save  the  grain,  but  "just  for 
the  looks  of  the  thing."  This  is  the  startled  response 
of  one  who  hears  for  the  first  time  the  voice  of  the 
race  speaking  within  him.  Third,  notice  the  exag- 
geration of  details,  and  the  effort  to  reach  the  abso- 
lute in  conduct.  Everything  is  now  put  into  one 
formula,  "either — or."  Nothing  but  the  absolutely 
perfect  is  right ;  all  else  is  wrong.  The  call  of  con- 
science comes  to  him  in  the  form  of  law,  pure  and 
simple.  Morality  is  as  yet  abstract  and  lacking  in 
content.  He  has  not  yet  grasped  the  notion  of 
growth  or  becoming,  nor  seen  that  benevolence  is 
the  fulfilling  of  the  law.  Right  here,  no  doubt,  lies 
the  root  of  much  of  the  youth's  anguish.  The  full 
authority  of  duty, 

"  Stern  Daughter  of  the  Voice  of  God," 

presses  down  upon  his  spirit;  but  it  is  a  yawning 
emptiness  which  he  seeks  to  fill  by  infinite  yearnings 

and  by  absurd  slavery  to  trifles. 

76 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

The  analysis  of  this  case  will  apply  in  large  degree 
to  many  others.  For  instance,  a  girl  of  about  a 
dozen  years  was  plagued  with  overnice  conscien- 
tiousness about  stealing.  She  would  not  take  so 
much  as  a  pin  without  permission,  or  if  when  visit- 
ing any  of  her  friends  she  found  it  necessary  to  take 
one,  she  inflexibly  compelled  herself  to  tell  the  hostess, 
saying,  "I  took  one  of  your  pins."  This  was  a  very 
painful  process  to  her,  though  she  did  not  see  the 
absurdity  of  it,  but  thought  she  was  merely  doing 
her  duty.  She  had  a  similar  overwrought  sense  of 
the  duties  of  politeness.  She  says :  "On  one  occasion 
a  neighbor  took  me  into  her  flower  garden  to  pick  me 
a  bouquet.  As  she  picked  each  flower  she  put  it  into 
my  hand,  and  each  time  I  said,  Thank  you.'  I  was 
greatly  embarrassed,  but  a  sense  of  duty  compelled 
me  to  keep  on  offering  my  gratitude  for  each  separate 
flower,  until  finally  the  lady  assured  me  that  it  was 
not  necessary." 

As  one  grows  older,  one  is  likely  to  become  aware 
of  the  unreasonableness  of  such  a  conscience,  yet  may 
not  be  able  to  resist  its  commands.  A  young  lady 
writes :  "I  have  suffered  at  intervals  ever  since  I  can 
remember  from  what  I  consider  to  be  a  morbid  con- 
science. However,  my  training  has  always  been  of 
such  a  healthy  sort  that  now  I  seem  to  be  outgrowing 
this  tendency,  and  abnormal  conscientiousness  crops 
out  only  when  I  am  in  considerable  physical  fatigue. 
.  .  ,  The  reason  why  I  call  these  spasms  of  con- 
6  77 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

science  morbid  is  because  they  seem  to  be  a  distinct 
hindrance  instead  of  a  help  in  doing  what  I  believe 
to  be  right.  I  want  to  do  right,  my  ideal  of  the  right 
is  very  high,  but  with  it  all  is  a  terrible  sense  of  self- 
distrust.  Instead  of  guiding  self  in  the  performance, 
conscience  seems  to  dissipate,  to  scatter,  all  self's  en- 
ergy. This  waste  of  energy  is  immense,  and  the 
results  painful.  The  last  attack  of  this  sort  was  when 
I  was  trying  to  write  [a  certain  literary  production] . 
I  had  an  idea  which  I  wished  to  develop  and  express 
as  well  as  possible.  But  the  thoughts  that  arose  were 
condemned  as  petty,  as  unworthy.  The  words  that 
flowed  from  my  pen  were  despicable.  The  structure 
seemed  miserably  weak.  Decision,  even  on  the  most 
minute  points,  was  well-nigh  impossible.  The  ex- 
perience was  altogether  painful,  and  the  struggle 
nearly  fruitless ;  and  all  through  it  I  was  aware  that 
it  was  abnormal ;  but  that  did  not  seem  to  help  mat- 
ters. I  was  overworked  at  the  time*  I  should  advise 
a  good  ten-hour  sleep  as  a  cure  for,  or  insurance 
against,  attacks  of  this  sort.  I  have  always  been  ex- 
tremely sensitive  even  of  little  frowns  of  disapproval, 
and  from  them  have  suffered  cruelly  as  a  child. 
This,  I  believe,  is  a  mild  case  of  morbid  conscience." 
In  this  case,  which  is  doubtless  typical  of  a  large 
class,  the  sufferer  is  not  deceived  at  all,  but  recog- 
nizes the  fact  that  her  feeling  of  right  and  wrong  has 
become  distorted.  Another  important  fact  here  is 

the  clear  indication  of  the  connection  between  morbid 

78 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

conscientiousness  and  fatigue.  "I  now,"  says  the 
writer,  "seem  to  be  outgrowing  this  tendency,  and 
abnormal  conscientiousness  crops  out  only  when  I 
am  in  considerable  physical  fatigue."  The  last  at- 
tack came  on  when  she  was  overworked.  We  might 
even  say  that  fatigue,  however  induced,  is  the  neural 
basis  of  morbid  conscientiousness.  Our  experience 
in  mature  life  witnesses  to  this  fact.  For  when  we 
are  tired  out  we  are  often  brought  into  a  sort  of 
slavery  to  our  duties,  and  especially  to  details ;  we  are 
drawn  in  so  many  different  directions  that  we  do  not 
know  which  way  to  turn,  and  we  seem  incapable  of 
getting  any  task  quite  done.  Under  these  circum- 
stances small  matters  unduly  excite  us,  even  when 
we  are  fully  aware  that  there  is  no  good  reason  for 
our  agitation.  With  adolescents  this  condition  may 
become  habitual  and  all-absorbing.  The  victim  be- 
comes a  slave  of  indecision.  He  sees  considerations 
on  both  sides  ofevery  question  of  conduct,  is  har- 
ass_ed_by  fear  of  deciding  for  the  wrong  side,  and 
often  ends  by  letting  slip  the  opportunity  for  action^ 
Then  comes,  perhaps,  remorse  and  mental  flagella- 
tion for  his  weak  and  vacillating  character.  One 
young  man  says :  "I  was  troubled  for  several  years 
by  a  lack  of  prompt  decision,  especially  in  small  mat- 
ters. If  once  I  got  to  arguing  with  myself  over  a 
thing,  I  was  likely  to  argue  too  long,  and  small  emer- 
gencies were  often  too  much  for  me.  I  derived  the 

greatest  help  from  learning  to  ride  the  bicycle  when 

79 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

I  was  twenty  years  old,  for  in  bicycle  riding  I  found 
prompt  and  accurate  decisions  necessary,  and  ap- 
parently forced  out  of  me." 

This  lack  of  decision  is  closely  akin  to  certain  in- 
cipient approaches  to  fixed  or  insistent  ideas.  A 
young  lady  who  was  much  troubled  in  her  early 
teens  by  an  oversensitive  conscience  tells  me  that,  on 
one  occasion,  having  been  deeply  impressed  by  the 
suicide  of  a  neighbor,  she  conceived  an  overwhelm- 
ing fear  that  she  might  kill  her  mother.  It  brought 
her  into  sharp  anguish  of  mind  for  some  days,  when 
she  found  relief  by  confiding  the  trouble  to  her 
mother.  A  young  man  who  from  the  advent  of 
puberty  to  the  age  of  twenty-five  suffered  from  three 
distinct  and  serious  attacks  of  nervous  exhaustion, 
and  each  time  endured  torments  from  his  conscience, 
experienced  in  one  attack  at  least  something  ap- 
proaching insistent  ideas.  As  he  walked  along  the 
street  he  felt  that  he  must  touch  every  post  of  the 
fence  and  not  step  on  any  crack  in  the  sidewalk ;  and 
these  were  not  mere  passing  whims,  as  they  fre- 
quently are  in  childhood,  but  commanding  ideas 
which  wrung  obedience  out  of  him  against  his  own 
judgment.  The  same  youth  had  a  consuming  fear 
of  hydrophobia.  Something  of  the  same  sort  is 
found  in  persons  who  lock  and  relock  the  door  several 
times  at  night,  being  unable  practically  to  convince 
themselves  that  they  have  already  completed  this 

duty.    Such  a  person,  though  intellectually  convinced 

80 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

of  the  folly  of  his  acts,  feels  impelled  to  rise  from 
bed  again  and  again  and  examine  the  door  lest  he 
may  possibly  have  made  a  mistake  the  other  times. 
I  have  found  this  phenomenon  present  in  many  ado- 
lescents. 

In  some  cases  absolute  consistency  is  the  rub. 
There  may  be  no  lack  of  decision — rather  precipi- 
tateness  of  decision  growing  out  of  narrow  ideas  of 
right.  Thus,  a  youth  who  was  singing  in  a  church 
choir  had  doubts  on  doctrinal  points.  Consequently, 
whenever,  in  the  singing  of  a  hymn,  he  came  to  a 
passage  that  he  could  not  accept  as  his  own  belief 
he  refused  to  sing  it.  Faithful  to  his  misunderstand- 
ing of  duty,  he  finally  left  the  choir  on  this  account. 

Again,  conscience  often  becomes  morbid  over  the 
question  of  one's  lifework.  Myriads  of  adolescents 
worry  and  weep  over  the  problem  of  what  they  are 
good  for,  and  whether  they  ought  not  to  become 
missionaries,  or  at  least  ministers.  Concerning  this 
group  of  cases  two  remarks  may  be  of  service.  In 
the  first  place,  many,  perhaps  most,  of  these  struggles 
occur  where  the  intention  to  do  right  already  exists. 
They  are  therefore  less  a  fight  between  a  defined  self- 
ish motive  and  a  defined  unselfish  one  than  a  mere 
floundering  about  in  the  confusion  wrought  by  self- 
distrust.  I  have  known  young  men  to  hestitate  to 
follow  their  common  sense  lest  selfish  motives  might 
have  corrupted  even  that.  In  such  cases  the  defect 

is  not  selfishness,  but  rather  an  overrefmement,  or 

81 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

double  distillation,  of  unselfishness.  It  is  an  unself- 
ing  that  paralyzes  both  judgment  and  will. 

A  second  remark  concerning  this  lifework  fever 
is  that  there  is  often  a  tendency  to  decide  upon  the 
ministry,  or  missionary  work,  or  some  heroic  occu- 
pation, simply  and  solely  through  confusion  between 
the  form  and  the  content  of  duty.  We  have  seen 
that  youth  is  a  time  when  the  absoluteness  of  the 
moral  imperative  strongly  overawes  the  mind;  that 
self-sacrifice  now  becomes  beautiful,  and  that  a  long- 
ing may  arise  to  annihilate  one's  self  for  some  glori- 
ous cause.  If,  now,  there  already  exists  a  firm  notion 
that  the  ministry  or  any  other  occupation  is  a  pecul- 
iarly unselfish  one,  the  oversensitive  conscience  may 
at  once  interpret  its  acute  desires  for  righteousness 
as  a  call  from  high  heaven  to  this  particular  work. 
Thus,  through  confusion  produced  by  mere  associa- 
tion of  ideas,  a  particular  occupation  becomes  identi- 
fied with  the  form  or  imperativeness  of  duty  itself. 
The  reasoning  is  this :  I  ought  to  live  a  wholly  un- 
selfish life,  therefore  I  will  be  a  minister. 

What  has  just  been  said  is  not  a  guess  at  the  truth, 
but  a  report  of  fact.  A  young  man,  for  example, 
who  was  obviously  ill-adapted  for  the  ministry,  and 
who,  on  the  other  hand,  felt  strong  moral  drawing 
toward  another  field  of  usefulness,  wras  neverthe- 
less plagued  with  a  feeling  that  he  ought  to  be  a 
minister.  He  consulted  a  person  older  than  himself, 

and  received  this  advice:  "Possibly  what  you  take 

82 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

to  be  a  call  to  the  ministry  is  rather  a  call  to  com- 
pleteness in  your  consecration.  Go  and  settle  this 
latter  question  first,  and  ask  yourself  whether  you 
are  equally  willing  to  serve  God  as  a  business  man  or 
as  a  minister."  After  several  weeks  the  youth  re- 
turned and  announced  his  conviction  that  he  had 
been  called  to  divine  service  as  a  business  man. 

Right  here,  in  psychological  misunderstandings, 
I  am  convinced,  lies  one  explanation  of  the  tenacity 
with  which  unadaptable,  stupid,  or  otherwise  ineffi- 
cient men  insist  that  they  are  called  of  God  to  preach 
the  Gospel.  Perhaps  the  most  striking  experience  in 
their  entire  moral  history  has  been  a  morbid  anxiety 
about  their  lifework.  Having  no  means  of  guessing 
that  it  is  morbid,  they  interpret  it  as  the  divine  Spirit 
tugging  at  their  wills  and  soliciting  them  to  preach. 

We  hear  a  great  deal  -in  these  days  about  a  dearth 
of  able  preachers.  May  it  not  be  that  the  grade  is 
being  kept  low,  first,  by  our  placing  too  much  con- 
fidence in  the  subjective,  individual  impressions  of 
candidates  who,  instead  of  being  really  called,  are 
simply  suffering  from  the  consequences  of  nerve 
fatigue;  and,  second,  by  our  failure  deliberately  to 
solicit  and  guide  toward  the  ministry  the  young  men 
whom  the  Churches  judge  to  be  strongest  in  the 
requisite  qualities?  It  is  surely  allowable  to  suppose 
that  the  divine  will  with  respect  to  the  ministry  may 
be  made  manifest  through  a  careful  use  of  enlight- 
ened judgment.  Furthermore,  is  there  any  valid 

83 


THF  SPIRITUAL  I  IFE 

reason  why  we  should  not  suggest  to  the  right  kind 
of  young  men  that  their  possession  of  the  gifts  itself 
constitutes  a  call  ? 

Trouble  of  conscience  over  one's  personal  reli- 
gious status  is  another  form  of  morbidness.  It  is 
very  common  in  Churches  that  put  much  stress  upon 
assurance,  or  the  witness  of  the  Spirit.  I  find  this 
phenomenon  present  in  the  history  of  forty  per  cent 
of  the  young  men  and  forty-four  per  cent  of  the 
young  women  whose  reports  I  have  in  my  possession. 
Some  of  these  reports  reveal  an  almost  tragic  amount 
of  suffering  on  this  point.  Certainly  in  some  cases 
the  trouble  was  not  merely  unfortunate  teaching, 
but  also  an  unfortunate  condition  of  the  nervous  sys- 
tem. Not  infrequently  such  a  period  of  religious  un- 
rest coincides  with  a  period  of  obvious  ill  health.  I 
have  before  me  an  account  of  a  young  girl  who  be- 
came a  mental  and  physical  wreck  with  the  delusion 
in  her  head  that  she  had  committed  the  unpardonable 
sin.  This  girl  had  always  been  very  nervous  and 
very  religious.  She  was  finally  rescued  by  a  woman 
who  cured  her  by  faith.  The  correlation  of  doubts 
with  ill  health  is  apparent,  also,  in  the  following  ac- 
count from  a  young  man :  "I  must  have  been  about 
twelve  years  old  when  I  had,  as  I  supposed,  a  reli- 
gious change,  and  joined  the  Church.  From  that 
time  for  about  five  years  I  was  continually  in  a  state 
of  unrest  and  trouble,  magnifying,  as  I  now  think, 

perfectly  innocent  things  into  sins  of  the  deepest  dye. 

84 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

And,  as  I  tried  to  bind  myself  down  to  a  perfectly 
correct  course  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  failed,  I  was 
continually  in  a  state  of  remorse,  and  also  continually 
thinking  of  myself  and  my  acts,  till  I  came  to  be  al- 
most unbearable  to  myself.  When  about  eighteen 
I  was  taken  sick.  .  .  .  After  my  recovery  I  had  lost 
all  the  supersensitiveness." 

But  not  merely  in  states  of  positive  ill  health  are 
these  doubts  of  one's  personal  religious  status  to  be 
found.  They  are  liable  to  be  found  wherever  reli- 
gious teachers  have  induced  young  per  sons  to  practice 
a  spiritual  barometry  and  thermometry  upon  them- 
selves. Of  course,  however,  the  weed  grows  most 
rank  where  the  power  of  resistance  of  the  nervous 
system  is  lessened  by  fatigue.  As  maturity  ap- 
proaches, and  power  consequently  ripens,  the  doubts 
can  be,  and  are  frequently,  banished  by  an  act  of  will. 
The  following  account  is  fairly  representative  of  a 
considerable  class  of  persons :  "When  I  was  about 
twelve  years  old  I  began  to  assume  the  outward 
forms  of  a  religious  life.  I  met  all  the  conditions  of 
being  a  Christian  as  far  as  I  understood  them,  and  at 
fourteen  joined  the  Church.  But  from  about  this 
time  until  I  was  twenty  I  was  constantly  haunted  by 
the  thought  that  I  did  not  know  for  sure  whether  I 
was  a  Christian  or  not.  I  prayed,  and  read  the  Bible, 
and  struggled  bitterly  with  my  secret  doubts,  though 
I  hardly  mentioned  them  to  anyone  else.  There  were 

times  when  it  seemed  to  me  that  I  would  walk  into 

85 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

the  fire  if  such  torture  could  cure  my  mental  agony. 
But  all  in  vain.  At  last  I  became  ashamed  and  dis- 
gusted, and  decided  that,  having  done  my  duty  as  far 
as  I  knew  how,  I  would  not  be  bothered  any  more. 
That  ended  it." 

Is  it  not  monstrous  that  sensitive  souls  who  have 
loyally  dedicated  themselves  to  God  should  be  per- 
mitted, through  causes  within  our  control,  to  suffer 
this  purgatory  of  doubt  whether  God  accepts  the 
offering? 

In  all  the  sorts  of  morbidness  here  described  three 
distinct  causes  are  likely  to  contribute  each  its  share : 
First,  the  general  yeastiness  of  the  mind  at  the  time 
of  the  change  from  childhood  to  adulthood ;  second, 
unwise  teaching,  or  lack  of  wise  teaching ;  third,  an 
overburdened  nervous  system.  This  general  subject 
might  have  been  discussed  with  propriety  under  any 
one  of  these  heads.  If  I  have  seemed  to  place  reli- 
gious and  moral  difficulties  in  unusually  close  prox- 
imity to  physiology,  it  is  because  of  a  conviction  that 
untold  spiritual  treasure  is  slipping  from  our  hands 
simply  because  we  forget  that  religious  states,  as  well 
as  other  states  of  mind,  stand  in  a  reciprocal  relation 
with  states  of  the  brain  and  nervous  system.  Fur- 
thermore, there  has  long  prevailed — when,  indeed, 
was  it  otherwise? — a  habit  of  trying  to  control  ef- 
fects without  controlling  causes.  It  is  so  easy  to 
scold,  or  to  exhort  one  to  have  trust,  or  to  reason  out 

how  one  ought  to  feel,  but  so  hard  to  get  at  the  actual 

86 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

causes  of  our  states,  that  we  allow  ourselves  to 
choose  the  smoother  path. 

But  perhaps  enough  has  been  said  to  show  the 
necessity  of  tracing  religio-moral  difficulties  to  their 
causes,  and  to  indicate  what  some  of  those  causes  are. 
All  of  which  ought  to  cast  at  least  a  little  light  upon 
the  functions  of  the  wise  parent  or  other  religious 
guide.  For  such  a  guide  to  add  to  any  existing  irri- 
tability by  laying  still  heavier  burdens  upon  the  con- 
science, by  multiplying  the  doubts,  by  adding  blacker 
hues  to  the  outlook  upon  life — this  is  next  thing  to 
crime.  And  this  is  precisely  what  may  be  done  by 
telling  a  young  person  to  examine  his  heart  frequent- 
ly ;  or  by  painting  before  him  the  rigors  of  the  moral 
law  without  equal  emphasis  upon  the  beauty  of  the 
moral  ideal ;  or  by  appealing  to  his  fears ;  or  by  de- 
scribing his  duties  and  privileges  as  though  there 
were  no  difference  in  capacity  between  him  and  a 
mature  person ;  or  by  telling  him  that  doubt  is  sin, 
and  that  life  is  a  continual  fight  with  snakes  in  the 
gr^ss.  The  victim  of  such  teaching  may  be  religious, 
but  he  is  pretty  certain  to  be  spiritually  deformed 
also.  What  religion  ought  to  do  for  youths  is  not  to 
increase  their  already  overdriven  subjectivity,  but 
to  restore  it  to  equilibrium  with  objective  interests. 
And  not  only  does  wrong  teaching  deform  the  moral- 
religious  nature,  it  also  tends  to  injure  the  body  it- 
self. For  the  relation  between  body  and  mind  is 
reciprocal.  One  young  man,  in  his  report  of  his  ex- 

87 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

perience,  insists  that  a  period  of  two  years  of  physical 
distress  was  induced  directly  by  excessive  religious 
irritation. 

The  surest  way  to  control  these  difficulties  is,  first, 
through  physical  hygiene  and,  in  some  cases,  medical 
treatment.  Nutritious  but  not  stimulating  food, 
proper  regulation  of  the  digestive  system,  plenty  of 
sleep  and  of  fresh  air — these  have  direct  spiritual 
value.  Then  comes  mental  hygiene;  that  is,  mental 
occupations  and  exercises  that  take  the  attention 
from  self  and  send  it  out  toward  free  and  joyous 
associations  and  activities.  Especially  necessary  is  a 
life  of  cheerful,  but  not  too  intense  or  excessive,  ac- 
tivity. This  last  grows  out  of  the  fact,  before  no- 
ticed, that  the  will  of  the  adolescent  is  less  developed 
than  the  feelings  and  the  intellect.  It  is  from  this 
weakness  of  will  that  arises  much  of  his  feeling  of 
being  pent  up,  of  being  shut  off  from  life,  of  having 
no  outlook  upon  the  world.  What  is  needed  here  is 
training  in  self-expression,  and  this  can  be  promoted 
by  wise  guidance  of  the  mental  and  physical  powers 
— the  mental  powers  largely  through  hearty,  uncon- 
strained social  intercourse,  the  physical  powers 
through  games  and  athletic  exercises  as  well  as 
through  work. 

Finally,  greater  than  all  else  is  sympathy.  Noth- 
ing, indeed,  can  be  a  substitute  for  a  personality  that 
appreciates  all  that  the  youth  feels  but  cannot  under- 
stand. These  neophytes,  entering  with  fear  and 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

trembling  upon  their  initiation  into  manhood  and 
womanhood,  do  not  ask  our  pity,  but  they  do  need 
to  get  acquainted  with  us  so  as  to  find  out  how  grown 
persons  feel  and  think  and  act.  Once  more,  it  is  the 
revelation  of  humanity,  which  is  the  revelation  of 
divinity,  that  heals  the  woes  of  the  world. 

Psychological  Aspects  of  Certain  Temptations. 

What  are  the  most  common  moral  struggles  of 
youth?  Apparently  a  bad  temper  heads  the  general/ 
list.  Next,  in  the  case  of  males,  comes  difficulty  with) 
the  sexual  nature — a  struggle  for  wholesomeness  of 
both  mind  and  body.  To  discuss  either  of  these 
darker  features  of  the  young  life  about  us  is  not  an 
agreeable  task.  But,  if  we  ask  what  is  useful  rather 
than  what  is  pleasant,  we  shall  agree  that  the  moral 
and  spiritual  guides  of  youth  should  not  shrink  from 
fully  understanding  the  nature  and  causes  of  the 
evils  which  they  seek  to  remedy  or  to  prevent. 

How,  then,  shall  we  understand  bad  temper?  If 
possible,  let  us  secure  a  psychological  view  of  the 
facts  as  distinguished  from  all  popular  or  theological 
theories  of  the  relation  of  this  fault  to  depravity, 
moral  law,  and  the  responsibility  that  grows  out  of 
freedom.  Let  us  admit,  what  is  very  fact,  that  our 
self-knowledge  is  not  sufficiently  developed  to  enable 
us  to  tell  with  accuracy  just  what  measure  of  freedom 
may  be  exercised  in  any  single  act.  It  is  undoubtedly 

possible  to  indulge  ill  temper  by  what  has  every 

89 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

appearance  of  being  the  most  fully  voluntary  choice. 
Yet  this  is  not  the  rise  of  ill  temper,  but  only  the 
encouragement  of  it  or  the  refusal  to  suppress  it. 
Granted,  then,  that  through  our  voluntary  attitude 
toward  it  it  may  become  habitual,  or  even  a  matter 
of  disposition,  we  still  need  to  know  how  the  thing 
itself  originally  springs  into  being. 

Again,  psychology  can  neither  affirm  nor  deny 
that  there  may  be  in  all  temptation  some  influence 
from  Satan  or  other  evil  spirits.  Our  observation 
does  not  extend  so  far.  As  for  depravity,  to  which 
in  other  days  all  the  angers  of  even  infancy  were 
ascribed,  we  shall  at  this  point  assume  no  posi- 
tive attitude  whatever.  We  may  remain  psycholog- 
ically noncommittal  all  the  more  easily  because  it 
plainly  appears  that  the  psychology  of  temptation  is 
the  same  whatever  our  theory  of  depravity  may  be. 
Thus,  if  by  depravity  we  mean  some  taint  of  the  soul, 
we  shall  expect  it  to  manifest  itself  only  in  particular 
acts  which  have  definite  correlations  with  brain  func- 
tions, as  well  as  with  other  mental  states.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  by  depravity  we  mean  that  something 
of  the  beast  remains  in  us  because  of  our  evolution 
from  lower  forms  of  life,  the  modes  of  its  manifesta- 
tion will  still  be  the  same. 

It  must  be  frankly  admitted,  nevertheless,  that 
when  we  view  the  facts  from  the  psychological  and 
the  evolutionary  points  of  view  the  very  problems 

which  theories  of  Satan  and  of  depravity  try  to  solve 

90 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

assume  a  new  meaning,  or  even  tend  to  lose  their 
meaning.  Theoretically  it  is  always  possible  to  find 
room  in  our  ignorance  of  details  for  any  desired  kind 
of  factor;  yet  practically  we  find  the  problem  shift- 
ing, and  we  tend  to  finish  our  study  without  caring 
to  answer  all  the  questions  that  may  have  been  upper- 
most at  the  beginning. 

Ill  temper  is  simply  a  misapplication  of  a  useful  j 
and  even  necessary  function.  This  is  sometimes  ex- 
pressed by  saying  that  temper  is  as  necessary  to  a 
man  as  it  is  to  a  steel  tool,  but  that  evil  arises  when 
temper  is  uncontrolled.  Another  popular  expression 
of  the  same  thing,  and  an  amusing  one,  too,  is  the 
distinction  often  made  between  anger  and  "right- 
eous indignation."  Of  course  this  distinction  of 
names  is  adhered  to  simply  for  the  sake  of  saving  a 
theory — the  theory,  namely,  that  all  anger  is  sinful. 
Now,  a  moment's  self-analysis  will  show  that  "right- 
eous indignation"  is  nothing  but  righteous  anger. 
Jesus  exhibited  intense  anger  of  this  kind,  and  if  he 
had  not  done  so  one  perfection  would  have  been 
lacking  from  his  portrait.  It  seems  strange  that  so 
obvious  a  fact  should  have  had  so  little  recognition 
in  popular  religious  instruction.  For  surely,  when 
everybody  knows  that  the  merely  yielding,  accom- 
modating, passive,  pulpy  character  is  utterly  one- 
sided, it  is  next  to  suicidal  for  the  Church  to  repre- 
sent Jesus  as  lacking  in  aggressiveness  and  without 
passionate  devotion  to  his  principles. 

91 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

Considered  in  respect  to  its  origin  in  the  animal 
kingdom,  anger  is  simply  feelingful  opposition  to 
that  which  is  injurious.  It  is  the  psychological  part 
of  the  struggle  for  self-preservation.  This  simple 
aspect  of  it  may  be  witnessed  through  a  large  part 
of  the  scale  of  animal  life.  Long  before  evolution 
reaches  man,  however,  anger  assumes  a  second  as- 
pect, an  altruistic  one.  A  parent  bird,  for  instance, 
may  show  the  most  unmistakable  signs  of  anger 
when  her  nest  is  approached ;  a  bear  breaks  into  the 
most  awful  passion  against  any  supposed  enemy  of 
her  cubs.  With  man,  finally,  this  altruistic  aspect 
becomes  broad  enough  to  appear  as  the  most  feeling- 
ful opposition  to  whatever  threatens  or  opposes  uni- 
versal good.  In  other  words,  with  man  the  function 
of  anger,  which  was  first  simply  a  part  of  the  ma- 
chinery for  self-preservation  on  the  part  of  various 
animals,  is  capable  of  being  transfigured  into  an  en- 
gine for  the  realization  of  the  highest  ideals. 

We  can  now  see  how  to  differentiate  between  the 
anger  that  is  to  be  suppressed  and  prevented  and  that 
which  is  to  be  cherished  as  one  of  man's  noblest  at- 
tributes. Anger  is  good  when  it  promotes  the  high- 
est ideal,  the  brotherhood  of  man.  This  implies  all 
that  is  essential  for  prompt  and  effective  self-preser- 
vation and  for  prompt  and  effective  defense  of  others 
against  nefarious  designs.  A  father,  for  instance, 
who  should  be  summoned  to  defend  his  daughter 

against  the  assaults  of  a  brutish  man  would  be  lack- 

92 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

ing  in  moral  fiber  if  he  were  not  enraged  with  the 
criminal.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that,  though  rea- 
son is  necessary  to  guide  the  ship  of  life,  feeling  is 
the  steam  that  propels  it. 

On  the  other  hand,  anger  is  bad  whenever  it  oper- 
ates against  the  realization  of  the  ided  of  brother- 
hood. It  is  dangerous  whenever  it  controls  the  man 
instead  of  being  controlled  for  moral  ends.  Subor- 
dinate manifestations  of  such  anger  are  impatience, 
''touchiness,"  and  undue  vehemence  of  feeling  to- 
ward the  persons  or  things  that  one  dislikes  or  dis- 
approves. We  have  now  to  ask  after  some  of  the 
chief  conditions  under  which  these  various  harmful 
states  arise. 

Nerve  fatigue  is  the  key  to  the  understanding  of 
spontaneous  tendencies  to  irritable  temper.  In  fact, 
touchiness  and  spasmodic  acts  of  all  sorts  are  the 
exact  psychical  counterpart  of  the  state  of  a  worn 
nerve.  To  see  that  this  is  true  one  needs  only  to  ask 
one's  self  whether  anger  occurs  more  commonly  in 
the  morning  or  in  the  afternoon ;  more  often  after  a 
sound  night's  rest  or  after  sleepless  hours;  more 
often  during  the  hour  before  dinner  or  during  the 
hour  after  dinner ;  more  often  when  the  digestion  is 
good  or  when  it  is  bad.  From  these  considerations 
it  will  become  plain  that  it  is  the  overworn  or  under- 
fed nerve  that  furnishes  one  of  the  chief  conditions 
of  ill  temper.  Hence  the  justification  for  the  oft- 
repeated  assertion,  "I  was  not  myself  when  I  said 
?  93 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

that."  Now,  just  so  far  as  such  conditions  of  the 
nerves  are  unavoidable,  blame  for  the  tendency  to 
irritability  is  unreasonable.  Under  such  circum- 
stances one  may  always  say,  with  Paul :  "The  good 
that  I  would,  I  do  not:  but  the  evil  which  I  would 
not,  that  I  do.  Now  if  I  do  that  I  would  not,  it  is  no 
more  I  that  do  it,  but  sin  that  dwelleth  in  me."  But, 
while  we  extenuate  unavoidable  tendencies  to  ill  tem- 
per, we  must  not  forget  that,  the  chief  cause  being 
known  to  be  a  physical  state  largely  under  our  own 
control,  our  responsibility  is  by  no  means  slight. 
What  is  perfectly  clear  is  that  we  should  treat  this 
fault  chiefly  by  removing  its  causes. 

Again,  physical  and  mental  hygiene  (see  page  88) 
contain  the  desired  leverage.  Instead  of  scolding, 
or  doing  anything  else  to  cause  youths  to  agonize 
over  their  ill  temper  and  so  add  to  the  tension  and 
fatigue  of  their  nerves,  we  would  better  say  to  them : 
"This  is  not  as  bad  as  you  imagine.  Your  anger  is 
sinful  only  as  far  as  you  voluntarily  indulge  it  or 
voluntarily  neglect  the  means  to  prevent  and  over- 
come it.  Unless  you  do  employ  some  effective  means 
for  gaining  self-control  the  trouble  will  become  deep- 
seated  and  chronic;  but  the  means  are  simple 
enough."  Then  should  follow  exhortations  not  only 
to  trust  in  the  help  from  on  high,  but  also  to  take  the 
hygienic  measures,  both  physical  and  mental,  to 
which  reference  has  just  been  made. 

Much  that  has  been  said  about  ill  temper  applies, 
94 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

word  for  word,  to  the  temptations  arising  directly 
from  the  fact  of  sex.  The  discussion  of  this  mo- 
mentous topic  with  anything  approaching  adequacy 
would  require  a  special  monograph.  Yet,  when  Star- 
buck  finds  that  about  a  third  of  the  males  whose  re- 
ligious experience  has  been  communicated  to  him 
give  sexual  temptations  as  the  most  prominent  ones 
in  youth,1  it  becomes  obvious  that  the  topic  can- 
not be  altogether  omitted  in  any  discussion  of  temp- 
tations. In  my  own  studies  I  have  not  sought  for 
revelations  of  experience  on  this  point,  yet  a  con- 
siderable proportion  of  the  young  men  found  it 
necessary  to  mention  such  temptations  in  order  to 
make  their  religious  experience  clear  to  me ;  in  many 
other  cases  it  was  plain  that  the  same  sort  of  tempta- 
tions were  referred  to  under  some  more  general 
name.  It  is  perfectly  clear  that  the  most  serious 
source  of  religious  difficulty  for  adolescent  males  lies 
precisely  in  sexual  irritability.  In  other  words,  as 
in  the  case  of  anger,  so  here,  what  we  have  to  under- 
stand is,  first  and  foremost,  certain  forms  of  height- 
ened or  abnormal  irritability  of  the  nerves. 

This  is,  perhaps,  as  good  a  place  as  any  to  say  that 
a  puny,  "spirituelle"  body,  the  body  that  many  of  the 
saints  have  aspired  to  have,  gives  no  advantage  in 
the  struggle  with  the  carnal  nature.  Perhaps  it  is 
true  that  the  strongest  passions  are  most  likely  to  be 
found  residing  in  a  robust  body,  but  a  more  impor- 

1  American  Journal  of  Psychology  ^  viii,  286. 

95 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

tant  truth  is  that  the  possession  of  such  a  body  is  a 
condition  most  favorable  to  self-control.  Anyone 
familiar  with  the  lives  of  the  saints  knows  that  the 
austerities  with  which  they  hoped  to  conquer  their 
carnal  nature  were  a  failure.  The  impoverished  state 
of  the  nervous  system  that  resulted  from  fasting, 
vigils,  overstudy,  and  all  the  other  ascetic  devices 
made  desire  more  active,  if  anything,  and  at  the  same 
time  weakened  the  natural  inhibitions.  Besides,  the 
very  occupation  of  seeking  to  escape  sin  by  with- 
drawing from  a  rounded,  healthy  life  fixed  the 
thoughts  with  all  the  greater  intentness  upon  the 
ideas  that  were  best  calculated  to  tempt.  Applying 
this  to  our  present  problem,  we  may  say  at  the  out- 
set that  the  two  great  conditions  that  we  should  seek 
to  establish  and  maintain  with  boys  and  young  men 
are  these :  a  thoroughly  robust  physical  life  and  a 
mind  fully  occupied  with  wholesome  thoughts. 
These  are,  of  course,  large  requirements,  and  many 
things  may  help  or  hinder  their  realization;  but  a 
few  very  simple  and  plain  as  well  as  influential  means 
are  at  the  disposal  of  every  parent  who  cares  to  pro- 
tect his  sons. 

In  the  first  place,  since,  as  soon  as  puberty  ap- 
proaches, curiosity  may  fix  the  attention  upon  mat- 
ters of  sex  until  it  acts  as  an  irritant,  the  general 
nature  of  sex  should  be  explained  long  before  that 
time.  Another  evil  that  this  course  will  tend  to  pre- 
vent is  the  uncleanness  with  which  matters  of  sex 

96 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

are  sure  to  be  associated  in  any  mind  that  learns 
them  surreptitiously  or  by  chance.  It  is  sometimes 
argued  that  the  simplicity  of  the  child  mind  should 
not  be  disturbed  by  early  information  upon  such  mat- 
ters. This  view,  however,  ignores  two  facts:  first, 
that  the  necessary  information  can  be  so  communi- 
cated as  not  to  disturb  this  simplicity.  If  properly 
communicated,  the  knowledge  will  be  taken  much 
as  other  prosaic,  everyday  facts.  This  is  the  testi- 
mony of  parents  who  have  loved  their  children 
enough  to  be  frank  in  answering  their  questions. 
The  other  fact  which  this  specious  argument  ignores 
is  that  children  do  obtain  information  regarding  sex, 
if  not  from  their  parents,  then  from  playmates,  serv- 
ants, or  even  by  observation.  What  a  ridiculous 
kind  of  delicacy  is  that  which  refuses  to  satisfy  the 
curiosity  of  children  in  a  pure  and  delicate  manner 
when  the  alternative  is  that  the  information  will  be 
acquired  with  possibly  many  foul  mental  associa- 
tions! Perhaps  the  most  judicious  point  of  view 
from  which  to  treat  the  subject  is  that  of  biology. 
The  law  of  sex  can  be  traced  up  from  the  flowers  to 
the  domestic  animals  and  man  as  a  mere  scientific 
fact,  without  the  first  suggestion  of  indelicacy. 
Again,  adequate  specific  knowledge  of  the  dangers 
of  this  period  of  life  should  be  imparted  before  ex- 
perimentation or  vile  companions  have  a  chance  to 
turn  a  danger  into  a  reality.  It  is  probable  that  bad 
habit  starts  oftener  in  curiosity  and  ignorance  than 

97 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

in  any  other  way,  and  this  danger  is  certainly  one 
that  parents  can  counteract. 

Adolescents  should  be  made  to  understand  that 
there  is  a  reciprocal  relation  between  the  mental  con- 
dition and  the  physical  condition.  They  should  be 
warned  of  the  physical  consequences  of  impure 
thought,  and  so  of  listening  to  or  telling  what  is  not 
strictly  wholesome.  They  should  at  the  same  time 
be  made  aware  that  the  temptation  to  impure 
thoughts  has  often  a  physical  basis.  Great  igno- 
rance exists  here  among  those  who  need  knowledge. 
On  the  one  hand,  the  difference  is  not  clearly  seen 
between  a  tempting  thought  and  a  sinful  thought. 
Jesus  was  explicit  in  making  the  sin  to  consist  in  in- 
dulging the  impure  suggestion  (Matt,  v,  28).  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  not  sufficiently  recognized  that 
suggestions  of  evil  come  chiefly  through  physical 
conditions  that  are  largely  under  one's  control. 
Whatever  produces  either  general  or  special  nerve 
irritability  tends  in  the  wrong  direction. 

Thus,  once  more,  we  are  confronted  with  nerve 
fatigue  as  a  most  important  key  to  adolescent 
difficulties,  and  with  physical  and  mental  hygiene 
as  the  most  important  preventive  and  remedy.  It 
sometimes  gives  heart  to  struggling  youths  merely 
to  tell  them  that  their  temptations  are  not  evidence  of 
badness,  but  rather  an  incident  of  a  period  of  growth 
or  of  temporary  and  controllable  conditions  of  the 

nervous  system.    Furthermore,  if  parents  or  other 

98 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

advisers  are  to  succeed  in  controlling  or  guiding  at 
all,  they  must  understand  the  timidity  of  youth  and 
must  find  ways  to  establish  confidential  relations  in 
spite  of  it.  Youths  who  dare  not  ask  questions  or 
seek  advice  from  their  natural  advisers  are  thrice 
defenseless.  They  are  more  liable  to  temptation,  less 
equipped  against  it,  and  in  danger  of  becoming  vic- 
tims of  the  robbers  and  murderers  who  advertise  to 
help.  It  is  a  strange  commentary  upon  the  supposed 
superior  modesty  of  American  life  that  the  only  per- 
sons to  whom  thousands  upon  thousands  of  youths 
dare  confide  their  questions  or  their  difficulties  are 
quacks  who  line  their  pockets  largely  by  promoting 
the  very  evil  which  they  pretend  to  cure.1 

If  the  question  be  asked,  Whose  place  is  it  to  as- 
sume the  responsibility  for  this  part  of  the  training 
of  the  young?  the  answer  is  that  this  is  emphatically 

1  Parents  who  desire  to  know  what  to  teach  their  boys  will  find  the  following  publi- 
cations worth  a  reading.  As  a  general  rule,  printed  matter  on  this  subject  would 
better  not  be  put  into  the  hands  of  young  adolescents.  The  element  of  personal 
sympathy  and  acquaintance  is  indispensable.  In  the  later  years  of  the  adolescent 
period,  however,  some  brief  and  judicious  printed  statements  are  in  place : 

Burt  G.  Wilder,  Professor  in  Cornell  University :  What  Young  People  Should 
Know.  Pp.  212.  Boston,  Estes  and  Lauriat,  1875.  $1.50. 

L.  B.  Sperry :  Confidential  Talks  with  Young  Men.  Pp.  179.  Revell,  1893. 
75  cents.  Confidential  Talks  with  Young  Women.  Pp.  160.  Revell,  1895. 
75  cents. 

Grant  Allen  :   The  Story  of  the  Plants.     Pp.  213.     Appleton,  1897. 

Mary  Wood- Allen  :  Almost  a  Man.  Pp.  36.  25  cents.  Child-Confidence  Re- 
warded. Pp.  19.  10  cents.  Teaching  Truth.  Pp.  24.  25  cents.  Wood-Allen 
Pub.  Co.,  Ann  Arbor,  Mich. 

Margaret  Warner  Morley :  A  Song  of  Life.  Pp.  155.  McClurg,  1891.  $1.25. 
Life  and  Love.  Pp.  214.  McClurg,  1895.  $1.25. 

Earl  Barnes:  "Feelings  and  Ideas  of  Sex  in  Children,"  Pedagogical  Seminary ; 
vol.  ii,  p.  199. 

The  above  titles  are  taken  from  the  Association  Outlook  for  June,  1898. 

99 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

the  work  of  parents.  Nevertheless,  in  view  of  the 
awful  neglect  of  parents,  it  is  worth  considering 
whether  pastors  and  school-teachers  will  not  feel 
themselves  forced,  as  soon  as  they  realize  the  situa- 
tion, to  assume  some  responsibility.  If  possible,  they 
should  reach  the  children  by  imparting  to  the  parents 
the  needed  knowledge  and  moral  impulse.  But,  in 
one  way  or  another,  those  who  perceive  where  lies 
the  greatest  moral  and  religious  difficulty  of  adoles- 
cent boys  and  young  men  have  the  opportunity  of 
doing  a  service  to  humanity  and  religion  that  is  of 
the  very  first  importance. 

The  Natural  History  Method  of  Handling  Moral 

and  Religious  Difficulties. 

It  would  not  be  strange  if  some  readers  missed  in 
the  present  chapter  what  they  regard  as  essential  in 
the  treatment  of  any  practical  problem  of  the  reli- 
gious life.  Has  not  the  divine  element  been  ignored, 
and  has  not  the  whole  discussion  proceeded  as  if  the 
distinction  between  body  and  soul,  hygiene  and 
spirituality,  physiology  and  theology,  had  been  ob- 
literated? For  reply,  one  might  retort  with  a  query 
whether  religious  instruction  and  training  has  not, 
as  a  general  rule,  been  blind  to  some  of  the  most  ob- 
vious conditions  of  a  healthy  spiritual  life;  whether, 
by  ignoring  the  relation  of  physiology  and  of  psy- 
chology to  spiritual  culture,  it  has  not  failed  to  con- 
trol large  sections  of  the  man,  thus  leaving  spiritu- 

100 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

ality  attenuated  and  one-sided;  whether,  finally, 
despite  has  not  thereby  been  done  to  an  essential  and 
profound  Christian  principle  concerning  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  spiritual  in  and  through  the  natural. 
Instead  of  discussing  the  question  in  the  form  of 
charge  and  countercharge,  however,  it  is  better  to 
give  a  plain  statement  of  the  relation  of  our  natural 
history  method  to  the  conception  of  a  spiritual  life 
under  the  immediate  control  and  guidance  of  the 
divine  Spirit. 

In  the  first  place,  let  it  be  said  that  our  discussion 
does  consciously  and  intentionally  assume  the  false- 
hood of  all  purely  ascetic  views  of  the  nature  and 
ends  of  religion.  Instead  of  forbidding,  a  normal 
religious  life  involves  the  proportionate  exercise, 
under  fitting  conditions,  of  all  the  functions  with 
which  nature  has  endowed  the  whole  human  being. 
Its  end  is  not  to  deliver  man  from  the  life  that  now 
is,  but  to  manifest  and  actualize  within  that  life  the 
divine  ideal.  The  religious  man  seeks  to  make  his  j 
whole  life  an  incarnation — a  living  of  the  divine  life 
here  and  now,  in  the  whole  network  of  interlaced 
mental  and  physical  activities.  Whether  he  eats  or 
drinks,  or  whatever  he  does,  he  does  all  so  as  to 
glorify  God.  Thus  and  only  thus  can  he  carry  for- 
ward the  work  of  the  incarnation — in-fleshing — to 
which  Christianity  traces  its  origin.  (That  for  which 
the  present  chapter  pleads,  then,  is  simply  the  rein-, 
statement  of  the  body  in  its  original  place  of  honor  j 

101 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

in  the  Christian  view  of  life.  When  it  advises  atten- 
tion to  physical  hygiene  as  a  condition  of  a  healthy 
spiritual  life  it  implies  no  theory  not  already  recog- 
nized and  accepted  in  the  doctrine  that  the  Word  was 
made  flesh. 

What  would  be  the  consequences  of  putting  this 
view  into  practice?  If  in  our  eating  and  drinking, 
our  sleeping  and  waking,  our  work  and  our  play, 
we  saw  only  religious  acts ;  if  we  perceived  that  nor- 
mal functions  tend  to  pleasure  as  abnormal  ones  to 
pain,  and  that  all  normal  functions  belong  to  religion, 
what  would  be  the  effect  upon  our  religious  joy? 
Would  religion  be  more  or  less  attractive  and  influ- 
ential over  the  lives  of  men  ?  To  ask  these  questions 
is  to  answer  them.  When  every  science  that  has  to 
do  with  the  life  that  now  is  comes  to  be  regarded  as 
showing  the  way  to  the  life  that  is  divine,  then,  in- 
deed, the  religion  of  incarnation  will  come  to  its 
own. 

But  how  about  the  divine  or  supernatural  element 
in  the  religious  life?  What  has  natural  history  to 
do  with  God's  government  of  his  moral  universe? 
Is  it  not  prayer  that  we  need,  rather  than  psychol- 
ogy ?  Perhaps  prayer  and  psychology,  but  certainly 
not  the  kind  of  praying  that  expects  God  to  do  for 
us  what  we  can  do  for  ourselves.  Would  it  not  be 
grotesque  to  believe  in  God  as  the  creator  of  our 
whole  being  and  yet  imagine  that  we  dishonored 

prayer  to  him  by  seeking  to  understand  all  sides  of 

102 


SOME  ADOLESCENT  DIFFICULTIES 

that  being  so  as  to  control  them  all  for  his  glory? 
We  might  even  ask  whether  this  latter  is  not  itself 
as  real  a  kind  of  prayer  as  any. 

All  this  line  of  thought  is  so  obvious  that  further 
pursuit  of  it  may  be  dispensed  with.  What  has  been 
said  will  not  be  in  vain,  however,  if  it  only  stimulates 
to  reflection  upon  the  recognized  principles  of  our 
religion.  Among  these  consequences  the  present 
chapter  has  emphasized  two  (jhe  recognition  of  ob- 
servable causes  and  conditions  of  religious  states, 
and  the  important  place  that  physical  well-being  oc- 
cupies as  a  condition  of  religious  well-being. 

103 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 


CHAPTER  III 
A  Study  of  Religious  Dynamics 

WHEN  Henry  Drummond  was  not  yet  through 
his  student  years  he  composed  and  read  a  paper  in 
which  he  gave  voice  to  the  need  of  scientific  spirit- 
ual diagnosis.  He  remarked  that,  instead  of  han- 
dling, mankind  in  a  lump,  we  ought  to  have  definite 
means  of  judging  the  varying  conditions  and  needs 
of  the  different  individuals  whom  we  try  to  help.1 
To- illustrate  by  a  single  example  the  justice  of  Drum- 
mond's  complaint,  let  us  ask  ourselves  why  it  is  that 
of  two  persons  who  have  had  the  same  bringing  up, 
and  who  seek  conversion  with  equal  earnestness,  one 
is  ushered  into  the  new  life  with  shoutings  and  blow- 
ing of  trumpets,  as  it  were,  while  the  other,  however 
earnestly  he  may  seek  such  experiences,  never  attains 
them  at  all.  Even  a  superficial  glance  at  the  ordi- 
nary course  of  revivals  will  show  that  they  are  often 
far  from  accomplishing  what  is  hoped  from  them. 
It  is  also  evident  that  the  hopes  of  receiving  certain 
experiences,  held  out  before  "seekers,"  are  frequently 
unfulfilled  when  the  conditions  are  favorable. 
Among  the  cases  that  I  have  minutely  analyzed  there 
are  35  persons  who  have  definitely  sought  for  a 
striking  religious  transformation  or  conversion.  Of 

1  G.  A.  Smith,  Life  of  Henry  Drummond^  New  York,  1898,  ssff. 
104 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 

these,  12  have  been  entirely  disappointed,  5  partly 
but  not  utterly  so,  and  only  18,  or  one  half,  have 
secured  what  they  sought.  I  have  found  the  same 
general  results  in  an  examination  of  scores  of  cases 
of  seeking  for  the  experience  commonly  called  "en- 
tire sanctification." 

Nor  is  this  all.  If  we  examine  the  present  experi- 
ence of  a  large  number  of  mature  Christians,  we  shall 
find  relatively  few  striking  variations ;  but  if  we  ask 
for  the  early  religious  history  of  these  same  persons, 
we  shall  find  the  most  remarkable  diversities.  In 
some  cases  childhood  religion  has  grown  mature 
without  special  agitation;  in  others  there  has  been 
a  definite  conversion  with  volcanic  outbursts  of 
emotion;  and  between  these  extremes  we  shall  find 
innumerable  grades  and  varieties  of  disturbance, 
though  with  much  the  same  outcome  when  adoles- 
cence is  over. 

Inadequate  Theories. 

These  differences  have  never  been  satisfactorily 
accounted  for,  and  indeed  the  question  has  hardly 
been  raised  except  for  the  sake  of  hazarding  a  guess. 
I 'The  explanation  of  sudden  conversions,"  says  Bain, 
"is  no  doubt  to  be  sought  in  some  overpowering  im- 
pression upon  the  mind  that  supplies  a  new  and  en- 
ergetic motive  to  the  will,  thereby  initiating  a  new 
line  of  conduct.!  .  .  .  Such  changes  occasionally 

happen,  but  not  without  terrific   struggles  which 

105 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

prove  how  hard  it  is  to  set  up  the  volition  of  a  day 
against  the  bent  of  years."1  Here  all  sudden  conver- 
sions are  lumped  together  as  though  they  were  all  of 
one  type ;  all  are  declared  to  be  accompanied  by  ter- 
rific struggles,  and  all  are  explained  by  a  single  cir- 
cumstance. 

Equally  incomplete  is  the  explanation  of  Nietsche 
when  he  snarls  at  Christianity  because,  as  he  thinks, 
it  is  not  in  contact  with  reality.  He  declares  that 
Christianity  cultivates  "an  imaginary  psychology 
(nothing  but  self-misunderstandings,  interpreta- 
tions of  pleasant  or  unpleasant  general  feelings,  for 
example,  the  conditions  of  the  nervus  sympathicus, 
with  the  help  of  the  sign-language  of  religio-moral 
idiosyncrasy — repentance,  remorse  of  conscience, 
temptation  by  the  devil,  presence  of  God)."2  Doubt- 
less this  statement  contains  some  truth;  yet  it  is  as 
inadequate  to  explain  the  broad  variety  of  experi- 
ences occurring  under  Christian  influences  as  it  is  to 
explain  the  whole  sphere  of  perception,  normal  and 
abnormal  together. 

Here  and  there  a  more  probable  hint  has  appeared. 
Thus,  Havelock  Ellis  makes  the  remark  that  a  sud- 
den explosion  of  suppressed  hypnotic  centers  is  "the 
most  important  key  to  the  psychology  of  conver- 
sion."3 Leuba,  speaking  of  the  conversion  of  John 
Wesley,  throws  out  this  hint:  "An  interesting  re- 

1  Emotions  and  Will,  third  ed.,  New  York,  1876,  453?. 

*  Antichrist,  Works,  New  York,  1896,  xi,  253. 

8  Man  and  Woman,  second  ed.,  London,  1898,  292. 

106 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 

mark  can  be  made  here  concerning  the  influence  of 
suggestion :  it  is  as  the  change  that  God  works  in  the 
heart  is  being  described  that  the  very  same  trans- 
formation takes  place  in  Wesley."1  The  same  writer 
also  remarks  that  "the  particular  forms  in  which 
affective  states  dress  themselves  are  functions  of  the 
intellectual  atmosphere  of  the  time."2  This  is  un- 
doubtedly a  hopeful  clew;  but,  when  he  goes  on  to 
affirm  that  joy  "is  never  altogether  wanting,  and  is 
always  violent  during  the  first  hours  or  days  that 
follow,"3  he  misses  an  essential  fact.  Starbuck  was, 
I  believe,  the  first  writer  to  give  adequate  recogni- 
tion, with  empirical  data,  to  the  marvelous  varieties 
that  cluster  about  such  terms  as  conversion.  He  ad- 
vanced a  step  toward  their  explanation,  also,  when 
he  showed  that  something  more  than  a  conscious 
exercise  of  either  intellect  or  will  was  central  in  ado- 
lescent conversions.4  He  came  still  closer  to  the 
problem  when  he  found  imitation,  example,  etc., 
present  as  motives  in  fifteen  per  cent  of  his  cases.5 
Nevertheless,  a  moment's  reflection  upon  the  ca- 
pacity of  the  average  person  to  tell  the  truth  regard- 
ing his  own  motives  will  reveal  some  insecurity  in 
these  results  and  bring  up  the  whole  question  of  the 
best  method  of  getting  at  the  facts.  Another  clew 
emerged  in  Starbuck's  admission  that  "much  de- 

l"  Psychology  of  Religious  Phenomena,"  American  Journal  of  Psychology \ 
vii,  340.  * 

»/*/</.,  357.  »/«£,  351. 

*  A  merican  Journal  of  Psychology,  viii,  292.  *  /£&£,  281. 

107 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

pends  upon  temperament."1  Yet  this  clew  has  never 
been  followed  up.  In  fact,  this  same  writer,  com- 
menting on  some  of  his  cases,  confesses  that  some 
religious  experiences  "seem  to  come  in  the  most  un- 
accountable ways."2  Now,  I  venture  to  believe  that, 
if  we  could  secure  sufficiently  full  information  as  to 
the  conditions,  every  one  of.  these  cases  would  be  seen 
to  conform  to  law. 

The  present  study,  accordingly,  is  an  attempt  at 
a  more  complete  analysis  of  individual  cases  than 
has  heretofore  been  attempted.  If  we  can  lay  bare 
the  factors  in  a  few  cases  that  are  fully  accessible, 
the  information  thus  acquired  may  afterward  be 
of  service  in  interpreting  the  broader  differences  of 
sects  and  religions.  To  forestall  misunderstand- 
ings, it  may  be  well  to  state  at  this  point  that  the 
phrase  "religious  dynamics"  is  not  intended  to 
convey,  and  cannot  properly  convey,  any  metaphys- 
ical meaning.  The  problem  concerns  the  concomi- 
tance of  certain  groups  of  phenomena  and  nothing 
more.  The  question  of  divine  influences  in  the  mind 
of  man  and  in  history  must  stand  in  exactly  the 
same  position  at  the  end  of  such  a  study  as  it  does 
at  the  outset.  Anyone  who  prefers  to  do  so  is  at 
liberty  to  interpret  every  result  as  a  description  of 
the  mode  of  God's  working  in  the  world.  Nothing 
in  the  study  itself  has  any  logical  tendency  to  under- 
mine this  belief. 

1  A  Hterican  Journal  of  Psychology ,  ix,  no.         a  //>/</.,  Si. 

108 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 

Method  of  the  Present  Investigation. 

Our  task  consists  in  looking  for  coordinations  be- 
tween specific  inner  states  and  tendencies  and  specific 
external  circumstances.  We  are  confronted  at  the 
outset  with  the  problem  of  how  to  secure  adequate 
data.  In  previous  studies  in  the  psychology  of  re- 
ligion reliance  has  been  placed  upon  the  question- 
naire method,  which  consists  in  securing  from  many 
persons  written  answers  to  printed  questions  regard- 
ing their  experiences.  This  is  doubtless  a  satisfac- 
tory method  of  securing  certain  facts,  but  our  in- 
quiry calls  also  for  information  which  the  writers  of 
such  papers  ordinarily  do  not  and  cannot  possess. 
Accordingly,  my  question  list  was  so  constructed 
and  the  answers  so  used  as  to  make  the  latter  not 
merely  a  record  of  certain  facts,  but  also  a  reflection 
of  the  personality  of  the  writer.  These  answers 
were  also  supplemented  in  various  ways :  First,  per- 
sonal interviews  were  had  with  a  large  proportion 
of  the  persons  examined.  The  cross-questioning 
which  these  interviews  made  possible  not  only  cleared 
up  doubtful  points  in  the  papers,  but  also  elicited 
many  new  and  important  facts.  Second,  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  subjects  were  placed  under  careful 
scrutiny  by  myself  and  others,  with  a  view  to  secur- 
ing objective  evidence  as  to  temperament.  These 
observations  were  guided  by  a  carefully  prepared 
scheme  of  temperamental  manifestations.  Third, 

interviews,  based  upon  the  same  scheme,  were  had 
8  109 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

with  friends  and  acquaintances  of  certain  of  the  per- 
sons under  examination.  Finally,  in  order  to  get 
at  the  facts  of  suggestibility,  hypnotic  experiments 
were  made  upon  all  the  important  cases  that  were 
accessible.  Fuller  description  of  some  of  these  meth- 
ods of  gathering  data  will  appear  later. 

The  number  of  persons  examined  was  77.  Of 
these,  52  were  males  and  25  females.  Nearly  all  are 
college  students  who  are  healthy  in  both  mind  and 
body  and  have  had  the  advantage  of  positive  moral 
and  religious  training.  Nearly^all  are  just  past,  or 
are  just  passing  out  of,  the  adolescent  period.  The 
average  age  of  the  men  was  24.8,  and  of  the  women 
(one  case,  65  years  of  age,  being  excluded),  22. 
Though  this  narrows  the  range  for  the  observation 
of  temperament  chiefly  to  the  formative  years,  it 
brings  these  compensating  advantages :  the  nearness 
of  the  chief  religious  experiences,  the  habit  of  intro- 
spective analysis  specially  characteristic  of  adoles- 
cence, and  the  naive  and  spontaneous  expression  of 
personal  facts.  Again,  a  large  majority  of  the  subjects 
were  brought  up  under  the  influence  of  the  Metho- 
dist Church,  which  lays  great  stress  upon  personal 
religious  experiences.  The  opportunity  to  study  the 
effects  of  suggestion  was  therefore  excellent.  In 
general,  in  spite  of  some  limitations  of  the  field  of 
observation,  the  differences  in  type  of  religious  ex- 
perience and  type  of  mental  organization  were  many 
and  great.  The  accessibility  of  the  material,  more- 
no 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 

over,  and  the  opportunity  to  observe,  ask  questions, 
and  experiment  repeatedly — these  easily  outweigh 
all  the  limitations.  It  is,  indeed,  not  easy  to  see  how 
a  more  satisfactory  set  of  cases  could  be  secured. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  variations  in  religious  ex- 
perience from  individual  to  individual.  The  chief 
one,  and  the  one  with  which  this  study  is  occupied, 
is  in  the  degree  of  abruptness  n-f  rplicriniis  changes. 
One  person  reaches  a  higher  plane  of  the  religious 
life  by  a  process  of  development  scarcely  ruffled  by 
excitement;  another  attains  the  same  state  by  pass- 
ing through  a  mental  cataclysm.  Some  elements  of 
the  explanation  lie  on  the  surface.  For  instance,  the 
striking  changes  occur  chiefly  among  denominations 
that  definitely  aim  to  secure  them.  Furthermore, 
these  denominations  have  discovered  many  of  the 
conditions  favorable  for  producing  such  changes, 
such  as  a  particular  type  or  particular  types  of 
preaching  and  appeal ;  the  use  of  music,  particularly 
of  certain  kinds;  intense  social  feeling  fostered  by 
meetings;  the  provision  of  external  acts,  signs,  or 
instruments — such  as  rising  for  prayers,  or  to  indi- 
cate decision,  going  forward,  the  altar,  the  mourn- 
ers' bench — all  of  which  evoke  expression  of  the 
inner  state  and  thereby  intensify  it ;  and,  finally,  the 
fitting  of  all  the  conditions  together  so  as  to  produce 
a  climax  or  a  series  of  climaxes.  What  we  need  to 
determine  next  is  the  mental  mechanism  to  which 

all  this  appeals,  and  also  the  reason  why  it  fails  of  its 

in 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

result  in  many  cases  in  which  the  conditions  give 
hope  of  success ;  for  it  is  a  matter  of  everyday  knowl- 
edge in  revival  churches  that  of  two  persons  brought 
up  in  the  same  manner,  and  apparently  meeting  the 
same  conditions,  one  may  experience  a  brilliant  con- 
version while  the  other  may  experience  no  such 

ites  at  all. 

In  order  to  secure  definite  ground  for  an  hypothe- 
sis on  this  point,  the  persons  under  examination  were 
divided  into  two  groups :  those  who  had  experienced 
a  marked  transformation,  and  those  who  had  not. 
The  fact  that  religious  changes  show  all  degrees  of 
rapidity  and  of  emotional  intensity  made  it  necessary 
to  draw  this  line  with  great  care.  In  every  case, 
therefore,  which  the  papers  left  in  doubt  a  personal 
interview  was  had.  Striking  transformation  was 
defined  as  a  profound  change  which,  though  not 
necessarily  instantaneous,  seems  to  the  subject  of  it 
to  be  distinctly  different  from  a  process  of  growth, 
however  rapid.  As  soon  as  the  subject  grasped  this 
definition  he  was  requested  to  classify  himself,  and 
his  decision  was  accepted  as  final. 

In  the  second  place,  a  cross  division  was  made  on 
the  basis  of  predisposition  of  the  mind  toward  such 
experiences.  Let  us  call  this  basis  "expectation  of 
transformation."  A  careful  study  was  made  of  the 
home  influences,  the  general  Church  environment, 
and  the  specific  circumstances  surrounding  the  reli- 
gious awakening.  Here,  again,  much  had  to  be 

112 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 

drawn  out  by  personal  interviews.  A  considerable 
number  of  the  subjects  were  taught  that  one  who 
has  been  religious  from  childhood  does  not  ne«d  a 
^marked  conversion.  Others  indicated  that  their 
thoughts  were  never  turned  strongly  in  the  direc- 
tion of  conversion.  All  such  were  classed  as  not  ex- 
pecting a  transformation. 

Combining  these  two  modes  of  division,  we  se- 
cure two  positive  classes  for  minute  study:  those 
who  expected  a  transformation  and  experienced  one, 
and  those  who  expected  but  failed  to  experience.  In 
the  working  out  of  this  scheme  a  third  division  was 
found  necessary  in  order  to  tabulate  cases  in  which 
these  two  classes  overlap;  for  a  number  of  persons 
who  experienced  a  marked  transformation  were  un- 
satisfied, and  sought  for  something  more  without 
securing  it,  while  others  were  satisfied  but  sought  for 
a  still  higher  experience  in  vain. 

To  do  justice  to  the  case  it  is  necessary  to  note  the 
caution  that  was  exercised  in  making  the  classes.  For 
example,  in  the  class  of  those  who  expected  but  failed 
to  experience  there  are  included  none  who  did  not 
distinctly  declare  that  they  sought  an  experience 
without  finding.  Most,  if  not  all,  of  them  had  sub- 
sequently learned  how  to  be  religious  in  spite  of  this 
disappointment,  yet  the  struggle  in  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  cases  had  been  acute. 

From  theology  the  suggestion  may  come  that  pos- 
sibly these  persons  did  not  really  surrender  them- 

113 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

selves  to  God.  But  an  a  priori  assertion,  or  rather 
guess,  like  this  ought  to  have  little  weight  as  against 
the»following :  All  the  evidence  of  the  facts  goes  to 
show  that  those  who  were  disappointed  had  put 
themselves  in  the  same  attitude  of  will  as  the  others ; 
furthermore,  a  large  majority  of  the  disappointed 
ones  are  now  living  positively  religious  lives — in  the 
evangelical  sense  of  religious. 

Temperament   as  a  Factor  in  Striking  Religious 

Transformations. 

These  two  classes  were  next  examined  with  re- 
spect to  temperament.  This  was  a  laborious  and 
perplexing  undertaking,  both  on  account  of  the  un- 
satisfactory treatment  of  temperament  by  writers  on 
psychology,  and  because  of  the  complexity  of  the  facts 
to  be  observed.  It  is  easy  for  any  psychologist  to 
give  a  classification  of  temperaments  that  can  be  bril- 
liantly illustrated  from  history,  but  it  is  quite  another 
thing  to  devise  a  method  for  grouping  the  persons 
one  comes  in  contact  with.  At  the  present  day  two 
classifications  are  employed.  The  first,  represented 
by  Wundt1  and  many  followers,  is  based  upon  the 
fact  that  one's  mental  processes  may  vary  in  both 
rapidity  and  strength.  This  basis  yields  four  tem- 
peraments which  correspond  fairly  well  with  the  tra- 
ditional fourfold  division.  The  rapid-strong  tem- 

1  Grundzuge  der  Physiologischen  Psychologic,  Leipzig,  1893,  ii,  sigff.  See  also 
Lotze,  Microsmus,  vol.  ii,  book  vi,  chap,  ii ;  and  Ladd,  Flements  of  Physiological 
Psychology,  New  York,  1897,  sjaff. 

114 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 

perament  corresponds  to  the  choleric,  the  rapid-weak 
to  the  sanguine,  the  slow-strong  to  the  melancholic, 
and  the  slow-weak  to  the  phlegmatic.1  On  the  other 
hand,  French  writers  for  the  most  part  adopt  a  quali- 
tative basis,  that  is,  classify  according  to  the  faculty 
or  function  that  predominates.  This  is  true  of 
Ribot,2  Queyrat,3  Levy,4  and  Fouillee.5  Perez,  how-1 
ever,  retains  liveliness  and  intensity  as  the  basis.6 
This  is  not  the  place  to  discuss  the  general  topic  of 
temperament,  or  to  go  into  the  merits  and  defects  of 
these  classifications.  It  is  sufficient  to  remark  that 
a  practical  scheme  must  provide  at  least  a  fairly  defi- 
nite mode  of  describing  any  and  every  person  whose 
individuality  is  sufficiently  marked  to  be  noticeable. 
Wundt's  scheme  was  first  employed,  but  it  quickly 
proved  itself  inadequate  to  give  a  genuine  character- 
ization of  many  distinctly  marked  individualities. 
This  was  especially  true  when  Wundt's  classes  were 
interpreted  as  if  they  were  identical  with  the  tradi- 
tional four  temperaments.  The  qualitative  plan  was 
next  tried,  but,  while  it  supplemented  the  other,  it 
proved  inadequate  taken  by  itself.  In  the  interest  of  a 
workable  scheme,  therefore,  it  wras  found  necessary  to 
combine  the  two  modes  of  division.  The  result  was 
not  a  new  classification  of  temperaments,  but  what 

1  For  a  brief  description  of  the  four  temperaments,  see  pp.  2o6ff.,  226f.,  23if. 

2  Psychology  of  the  Emotions,  London,  1897,  388ff. 

3  Les  Caracteres^  Paris,  1896,  s6ff. 

*  Psychologie  du  Caractere,  Paris,  1896,  iSaff. 
8  Temperament  et  Caractere,  Paris,  1895,  2off. 
6Le  Caractere^  Paris,  1892. 


THE-  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

we  may  call  a  scheme  of  the  constituents  of  tempera- 
ment. The  mode  of  procedure  now  consisted  first 
of  judging  whether  sensibility,  intellect,  or  will  was 
the  most  prominent  faculty;  next,  of  finding  the 
second  in  prominence;  then,  of  estimating  the  place 
of  each  of  the  three  faculties  in  respect  to  promptness 
-and  intensity.  For  each  subject,  in  the  end,  there 
were  three  descriptive  designations,  as,  for  example, 
prompt-intense  intellect,  prompt-weak  sensibility, 
prompt-weak  will,  and  these  three  were  arranged  in 
the  order  of  prominence. 

The  sources  of  evidence  for  temperament  were  the 
same  as  those  employed  by  the  writers  just  named, 
namely,  permanent  modes  of  action,  of  speech,  and 
of  point  of  view ;  permanent  interests ;  likes  and  dis- 
likes; habitual  social  interactions,  etc.,  whether  ob- 
served and  recorded  by  the  subject  himself  or  by 
other  persons.  The  data  were  secured  by  the  fol- 
lowing methods :  First,  by  inserting  in  the  question 
list  mentioned  in  Chapter  I,  and  reproduced  in  Ap- 
pendix A,  a  number  of  questions  concerning  likes 
and  dislikes,  laughter  and  weeping,  anger  and  its 
effects,  habits  of  introspection,  moods,  promptness  or 
its  opposite  in  decisions,  ideals,  the  effects  of  excite- 
ment, habits  with  respect  to  physical  activity,  etc. 
A  particularly  fruitful  interrogation  was  the  follow- 
ing :  "If  you  were  obliged  to  spend  a  whole  day  alone, 
felt  at  perfect  liberty  to  follow  your  inclinations,  and 

had  the  means  to  do  so,  what  would  you  do?"    At 

116 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 

no  point  in  the  questions  was  temperament  or  dis- 
position mentioned. 

The  second  method  was  by  observation  of  the  gen- 
eral tone  of  the  papers.  The  question  list,  it  may  be 
remarked,  was  very  lengthy.  It  included  approxi- 
mately two  hundred  specifications,  all  planned  with 
reference  to  the  evoking  of  memories  rather  than  the 
securing  of  categorical  replies.  Its  length  precludes 
its  presentation  here.  The  responses  were*corre- 
spondingly  extended,  and  not  the  least  remarkable 
thing  about  them  was  the  amount  of  information 
they  imparted  between  the  lines.  It  was  obvious  that 
they  were  not  merely  a  record  of  phenomena,  but 
also  a  body  of  original  phenomena.  Sometimes  what 
they  purported  to  be  as  a  record  had  to  be  offset  by 
what  they  were  as  new  facts.  Thus,  in  response  to 
the  question,  /"Do  your  friendships  last/1  nearly 
every  writer  gave  an  affirmative  answer./Here  it  is 
probable  that  the  ideal  of  the  writers  rather  than 
their  actual  experience  comes  to  expression.  These 
answers  have  value,  therefore,  as  evidence  of  the 
nature  of  the  social  instinct,  but  hardly  as  evidence 
of  actually  existing  social  relations.  Occasionally 
the  manner  of  responding  to  a  question  revealed 
more  than  did  the  content  of  the  response.  Intel- 
lectual interest  stood  out  in  one,  strenuous  serious- 
ness or  passionate  earnestness  in  another,  while  the 
chattiness  of  a  third  revealed  a  type  of  impression- 
ability strongly  contrasted  with  both. 


"UN 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

A  third  method  was  objective  observation  as 
already  described.  The  scheme  of  questions  un- 
derlying thife  part  of  the  investigation  was  also 
extended.1/  It  included  among  other  topics  the  fol- 
lowing: -The  habitual  state  of  the  muscles,  par- 
ticularly the  face,  whether  tense  or  relaxed;  one's 
carriage  and  motions,  whether  quick,  jerky,  irregu- 
lar, or  more  slow,  free,  and  pendulum-like;  one's 
mode  of  speech  and  the  quality  of  the  voice ;  the  ex- 
pression of  the  eyes,  and  any  other  signs  that  show 
whether  the  subject  is  wide-awake  to  his  surround- 
ings ;  whether  one  is  more  given  to  the  reception  of 
impressions  or  to  active  effort  to  control  surround- 
ings ;  readiness  to  laugh  and  cry ;  specific  manifesta- 
tions of  anger;  characteristic  moods;  persistency; 
social  self-assertiveness  of  various  types ;  intellectual 
habits ;  religious  habits. 

The  data  obtained  by  all  these  methods  were  com- 
pared, and  thus  the  final  judgment  was  based  upon  a 
really  wide  range  of  facts.  Furthermore,  in  most 
cases,  independent  judgments  were  formed  by  dif- 
ferent observers,  and  these  judgments  were  finally 
checked  off  against  one  another.  As  soon  as  a  defi- 
nite and  comprehensive  mode  of  procedure  was  dis- 
covered the  facts  began  to  fall  into  place  with  the 
sort  of  inevitableness  that  inspires  confidence  in  one's 
method.  The  amount  of  agreement  reached  by  ob- 
servers independently  of  one  another  was  another 

1  See  Appendix  B. 

118 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 

evidence  of  the  trustworthiness  of  the  method.  If  the 
lack  of  precision  and  of  quantitative  determinations 
should  seem  to  impair  the  value  of  the  results,  two 
considerations  might  be  offered  in  defense.  The  first 
is  that  all  the  knowledge  of  temperament  possessed 
by  biographers  and  historians  and  by  literary  work- 
ers, and  nearly  all  that  possessed  by  psychologists 
themselves,  has  been  gathered  by  methods  analogous 
to  this,  though  rarely,  if  ever,  by  methods  so  sys- 
tematic and  comprehensive.  Dependence  has  not 
been  placed  upon  any  general  or  casual  impression, 
but  only  upon  large  masses  of  data  each  item  of 
which  has  been  carefully  scrutinized.  The  other 
consideration  is  that  a  manner  of  learning  men  sim- 
ilar to  this,  though  far  less  comprehensive,  is  one  of 
the  bases  of  the  world's  successful  business.  Indeed, 
a  large  part  of  the  practical  interests  of  life  hang 
upon  our  ability  so  to  observe  temperamental  mani- 
festations as  to  be  able  to  predict  the  general  quality 
of  one's  reactions  in  different  sets  of  circumstances. 
Of  course  this  is  not  a  sphere  in  which  claims  to  sci- 
entific infallibility  become  even  plausible;  neverthe- 
less, the  thorough  and  systematic  analysis  employed 
may  fairly  entitle  the  results  to  some  degree  of  con- 
fidence. 

The  temperamental  classification  of  the  members 
of  the  three  groups  concerning  whom  adequate  in- 
formation was  obtainable  yields  the  following  re- 

suits : 

119 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 


RELATION   OF  STRIKING  TRANSFORMATION  TO 
TEMPERAMENT. 


Classification  According  to  the  Three 
Faculties. 

Sensibility 
Predom- 
inant. 

Intellect 
Predom- 
inant. 

Will 
Predom- 
inant. 

GROUP  I.  —  17  persons  who  expected  a  trans- 
formation and  experienced  it  

12 

2 

GROUP  II.  —  12  who  expected  but  did  not 
experience      

2 

i 

GROUP  III.—  5  others  who  belong  to  both 
the  above  classes  

2 

2 

i 

Classification 
According  to 
the  Four 
Temperaments. 

Sanguine 
(Prompt-Weak). 

Melancholic 
(Slow-Intense). 

Choleric 
(Prompt-Intense)  . 

Phlegmatic 
(Slow-Weak). 

GROUP  I  

8 

6 

i 

2 

GROUP  II  

2 

3 

7 

The  most  marked  contrast  in  these  tables  con- 
cerns the  relation  of  the  two  main  groups  to  intellect 
and  sensibility.  Where  expectation  is  satisfied, 
there  sensibility  is  distinctly  predominant ;  but  where 
expectation  is  disappointed,  there  intellect  is  just  as 
distinctly  predominant.  To  appreciate  the  strength 
of  this  conclusion  it  will  be  well  to  remind  ourselves 
once  more  of  the  range  of  facts  upon  which  it  is 
based.  In  only  three  cases  in  Group  I  and  one  case 
in  Group  II  was  it  necessary  to  rely  solely  upon  the 
subject's  paper.  A  second  interesting  result  is  that 
those  whose  expectation  is  satisfied  belong  almost 
exclusively  to  the  slow-intense  and  prompt-weak 
varieties,  the  temperaments  approaching  most  nearly 
those  traditionally  known  as  the  melancholic  and 
sanguine.  On  the  other  hand,  those  whose  expecta- 
tion is  disappointed  belong  more  largely  to  the 

120 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 

prompt-intense  variety,  or  the  choleric  temperament, 
though  the  distribution  between  the  choleric,  melan- 
cholic, and  sanguine  is  not  markedly  uneven.  Again, 
comparing  the  two  main  groups  with  respect  to 
promptness  and  intensity,  each  by  itself,  we  find  that, 
on  the  whole,  Group  II  exceeds  Group  I  in  both 
promptness  and  intensity.  Finally,  some  slight  con- 
firmation of  the  representative  character  of  these  re- 
sults is  found  in  the  heterogeneity  of  the  cases  in 
Group  III.  The  full  significance  of  these  results 
concerning  temperament,  however,  will  not  appear 
until  we  have  examined  the  same  subjects  with  re- 
spect to  automatisms  and  suggestibility. 

Relation  of  These  Experiences  to  Mental  and  Motor 

Automatisms. 

Careful  inquiry  was  made,  both  in  the  question 
list  and  by  personal  cross-questioning,  for  evidence 
of  mental  and  motor  automatisms.  The  inquiry 
divided  itself  into  these  heads:  Striking  dreams  in 
connection  with  religious  awakening;  hallucinations 
in  connection  with  religious  transformation;  hallu- 
cinations occurring  at  other  times;  motor  automa- 
tisms occurring  at  the  time  of  religious  transforma- 
tion, and  similar  automatisms  occurring  at  other 
times.  The  purpose  of  the  inquiry  did  not  make  it 
necessary  to  render  these  various  classes  rigorously 
precise.  Accordingly,  when  it  was  difficult  to  decide 
whether  a  given  phenomenon  was  to  be  classed  as  a 


121 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

dream  or  as  an  hallucination,  I  followed  the  impres- 
sion of  the  subject.  If  he  insisted  that  he  was  awake 
at  the  time,  the  experience  was  classed  as  an  halluci- 
nation. Similarly,  the  group  of  motor  automatisms 
contains  some  cases  that  fall  near  the  boundary  line ; 
but,  in  general,  it  is  believed  that  the  list  which  fol- 
lows is  a  full  and  substantially  accurate  census.  It 
contains  all  the  facts  of  these  classes  discovered  in 
the  entire  investigation. 

Striking  Dreams  in  Connection  with  Religious 
Awakening. 

Dreamed  of  being  cast  into  hell.  Suffered  all  tor- 
ments of  the  damned  that  he  had  ever  heard  about. 

Dreamed  of  being  cast  out  of  heaven. 

Dreamed  of  a  heavenly  procession  which  he  could 
not  join. 

Dreamed  of  taking  an  examination  on  fitness  to  go 
to  heaven. 

Hallucinations  in  Connection  with  Religious  Trans- 
formation. 

Streaks  of  light  shone  down. 

A  somewhat  bright,  diffused  light  just  above  the 
eyes.  Occurred  twice. 

Seemed  to  observe  the  joy  in  heaven. 

Saw  a  vision  of  the  broad  way  and  the  narrow 
way,  with  many  persons  in  the  former  and  few  in 
the  latter. 

122 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 

Other  Hallucinations. 

Saw  a  light  spring  up  from  a  tomb  in  a  cemetery. 

Used  to  hear  his  name  spoken  when  he  was  about 
to  commit  some  sin. 

Had  just  retired  after  private  devotion.  Saw  a 
dim,  diffused  light  above  the  eyes. 

Was  touched  by  an  absent  friend. 

Saw  a  dog  that  was  not  there. 

Heard  deceased  grandfather's  voice. 

Heard  mother's  voice  when  she  was  far  away. 

Heard  the  voice  of  a  friend. 

Felt  the  presence  of  an  absent  friend.  It  seemed 
to  be  an  objective  fact  and  not  a  mere  impression. 

Heard  music  different  from  any  he  had  ever  lis- 
tened to. 

Heard  angels  sing. 

In  the  midst  of  a  public  speech  twice  saw  a  scene 
he  was  describing. 

Childhood  fear  of  the  dark  has  persisted.  The 
feeling  that  a  fiend  is  just  behind  and  ready  to  spring 
upon  him  sometimes  becomes  so  intense  that  self- 
control  becomes  impossible. 

An  inner  voice  which  expresses  approval  at  times 
of  perplexity  by  saying,  "Fear  not,  I  am  with  you." 

God  tells  her  where  things  are  that  she  is  looking 
for.  Also  tells  her  things  before  they  come  to  pass. 

Voices  and  visions  just  before  sleeping  at  night. 
Has  often  gone  to  the  window  or  out  of  doors  to  see 

where  the  music  came  from. 

123 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

Up  to  the  age  of  thirteen  used  every  night  to  see 
figures  in  the  room. 

When  praying  had  a  vision  of  an  absent  friend 
who  gave  just  the  information  that  was  desired. 

Waked  one  night  and  saw  a  great  luminous  eye  in 
the  ceiling.    Thought  it  was  God's  eye. 
.    Has  repeatedly  seen  his  deceased  mother's  face. 

Saw  a  scene  from  his  past  life. 

Saw  Christ  hanging  on  the  cross. 

Saw  Christ  transfigured. 

Saw  a  vision  of  the  judgment. 

Motor  Automatisms  at  the  Time  of  Religious  Trans- 
formation. 

Uncontrollable  laughter  for  fully  five  minutes. 

A  powerful  thrill  through  the  whole  body. 

Sudden  clapping  of  hands  before  any  change  of 
feeling  came. 

Tobacco  habit  broken  without  effort  or  even  seek- 
ing. 

Other  Motor  Automatisms. 

Automatic  laughter. 

At  times  something  very  holy  seems  to  be  dictat- 
ing his  thoughts. 

Has  always  felt  himself  under  two  influences,  one 
good  and  one  bad,  and  neither  of  them  any  part  of 
himself. 

Surprising  and  incomprehensible  outburst  of  de- 
124 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 

fiance  to  God.  Age,  about  ten  or  twelve  years. 
Shook  fist  at  the  sky  and  told  God  he  hated  him. 

"The  Holy  Spirit  often  fills  me  so  that  I  feel  light, 
and  it's  no  trouble  to  walk  and  not  feel  tired."  (A 
lady  well  advanced  in  years.) 

Talking,  singing,  whistling  to  one's  self.  This 
seems,  at  times,  to  become  an  automatic,  subcon- 
scious performance.  A  parent  affected  in  the  same 
way  sometimes  lets  out  secrets  by  this  means. 

Let  us  now  ask  how  these  phenomena,  exclusive 
of  the  dreams,  are  distributed  among  the  three 
groups.  Of  1 8  persons  in  Group  I,1  8  have  had 
either  hallucinations  or  motor  automatisms.  Of 
the  6  persons  in  Group  III,  5  have  had  similar  ex- 
periences. Hence,  of  24  persons  who  have  had  a 
striking  religious  transformation  13  have  also  ex- 
hibited these  automatic  phenomena.  But  of  the  12 
persons  (Group  II)  who  sought  a  striking  religious 
transformation  in  vain  only  one  has  had  either  an 
hallucination  or  a  motor  automatism. 

The  total  number  of  persons  examined  with  re- 
spect to  automatisms  was  77.  Of  these,  20  had  ex- 
hibited such  phenomena.  Now,  13  of  these  20  are 
found  among  the  24  persoris  in  Groups  I  and  III ; 
that  is,  practically  one  sixth  of  the  entire  number  of 

1  The  variation  in  the  size  of  the  groups  is  due  to  the  fact  that  in  respect  to  some 
persons  adequate  information  was  obtainable  on  one  point  but  not  on  another.  It 
is  for  this  reason  that  Group  I  contains  17  persons  in  one  case,  iq  in  another,  and 
14  in  a  third.  That  is,  there  were  17  concerning  whom  it  was  possible  to  form  a 
Definite,  judgment  with  respect  to  temperament,  19  with  respect  to  automatisms, 
and  14  with  respect  to  suggestibility. 

9  125 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

persons  examined  embraces  two  thirds  of  the  cases 
of  automatisms.  Putting  these  results  in  the  form 
of  percentages,  we  get  the  following : 

General  average  of  automatisms  for 

77  persons 26  per  cent. 

Average  for  those  who  have  experi- 
enced a  striking  religious  trans- 
formation    54 

Average  for  those  who  sought  such  a 

transformation  in  vain 8       " 

In  other  words,  the  average  for  those  who  had  a 
striking  religious  transformation  is  twice  as  high  as 
the  general  average,  and  nearly  seven  times  as  high 
as  the  average  for  those  who  sought  such  a  trans- 
formation in  vain. 

If  the  general  average  of  automatisms  seems 
rather  excessive,  the  following  explanatory  circum- 
stances should  be  borne  in  mind :  First,  motor  autom- 
atisms are  included  with  hallucinations.  Second, 
nearly  all  the  persons  examined  are  too  young  to 
have  forgotten  such  experiences.  Third,  the  cross- 
questioning  already  described  brought  out  a  number 
of  facts  not  elicited  by  the  questionnaire  and  not 
likely  to  be  elicited  by  a  census  of  hallucinations  con- 
ducted by  correspondence  alone.  Finally,  it  now  be- 
comes obvious  that  the  high  general  average  depends 
upon  the  presence  of  a  relatively  large  number  of 
persons  who  have  experienced  striking  religious 

transformations. 

126 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 


The  results  here  reached  may  be  graphically  repre- 
sented by  the  accompanying  squares.  The  shaded 
portion  of  the  first  square  indicates  the  general  aver- 


age of  mental  and  motor  automatisms.  The  shaded 
portion  of  the  second  indicates  the  average  for  those 
who  experienced  a  striking  religious  transformation ; 
that  of  the  third,  the  average  for  those  who  sought 
such  a  transformation  in  vain. 

These  results  are  so  unequivocal  that  interpreta- 
tion is  unnecessary.  It  may  be  worth  while  to  add, 
however,  that  in  two  cases  of  motor  automatism  oc- 
curring at  the  time  of  religious  transformation  there 
was  clear  evidence  of  a  congenital  tendency  to  such 
performances;  in  both  cases  a  parent  had  exhibited 
a  similar  automatism  under  similar  religious  con- 
ditions. In  a  third  case  it  was  possible  to  identify  a 
phenomenon  as  probably  automatic  through  a  similar 
but  more  pronounced  phenomenon  in  a  parent.  One 
case  of  hallucination  was  likewise  clearly  referable 
to  cor/genital  tendencies.  Three  of  these  four  cases 
of  congenital  proclivity  belong  in  Group  I.  Further- 
more, to  Groups  I  and  III  belong  nearly,  if  not  quite, 

127 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

all  the  persons  who  have  experienced  the  healing  of 
disease  by  faith,  those  who  have  received  remark- 
able assurance  of  answered  prayer  in  advance  of  the 
event,  and  those  who  reported  other  veridical  pre- 
monitions. The  conclusion  is  that  the  mechanism 
of  striking  religious  transformations  is  the  same  as 
the  mechanism  of  our  automatic  mental  processes. 

Suggestibility  as  a  Factor  in  Striking  Transforma- 
tions. 

There  remains  for  study  the  relative  suggestibility 
of  the  three  groups ;  that  is,  their  susceptibility  to  i 
such  influences  as  appear  most  strikingly  in  hypno-  \ 
tism.  At  first  thought  this  seems  to  be  a  simple  prob- 
lem of  more  and  less;  but  it  is  neither  simple  nor 
merely  quantitative.  Indeed,  the  qualitative  varieties 
of  suggestibility  are  quite  as  marked  and  quite  as 
important  as  the  "suggestibility  and  nonsuggesti- 
bility"  which  chiefly  figure  in  the  literature  of  sug- 
gestion. It  must  have  struck  many  experimenters 
as  a  strange  incident  that,  whereas  persons  of  sound 
body  and  trained  mind  make  excellent  subjects,  most 
of  the  literature  represents  suggestibility  as  identical 
with  relative  prominence  of  the  lower  centers.  The 
fact  seems  to  be  that  some  persons  are  easily  hyp- 
notized, not  because  the  higher  rational  centers  are 
undeveloped,  but  precisely  because  the  high  develop- 
ment of  these  centers — the  habit  of  prompt  concen- 
tration of  voluntary  attention — makes  it  possible  to 

128 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 

follow  the  suggestions  of  the  operator  with  pre- 
cision. Moll  remarks  that  the  ability  to  direct  one's 
thoughts  in  any  particular  direction  is  favorable  to 
hypnosis,  but  that  this  ability  is  usually  considered 
to  be  a  sign  of  strength  of  will.1  As  the  persons 
under  examination  in  the  present  part  of  our  study 
are,  perhaps  without  exception,  healthy,  and  as  all 
have  had  considerable  mental  training,  it  will  be  seen 
that  ready  response  to  suggestion  cannot  be  regarded 
as  an  unambiguous  sign.  The  experimentation  was 
begun  under  the  tentative  hypothesis  that  auto-sug- 
gestion might  possibly  account  in  part  for  the  failure 
of  persons  in  Group  II  to  secure  the  desired  experi- 
ences. The  problem  then  became  whether  external 
suggestion  was  more  prominent  in  Group  I  and  auto- 
suggestion in  Group  II. 

The  problem  may  be  more  precisely  put  by  distin- 
guishing between  passive  suggestibility  and  sponta- 
neous auto-suggestion.  The  necessity  of  thus  stating 
the  distinction  grows  out  of  the  ease  of  misun- 
derstanding certain  phenomena,  particularly  those 
commonly  described  as  "resisting  the  operator's  sug- 
gestion." Thus,  if  a  subject  struggles  to  open  his 
eyes  when  I  tell  him  that  he  cannot  do  so,  this  is  no 
evidence  of  spontaneity.  For  the  very  assertion,  in 
the  early  stages  of  hypnosis,  that  the  eyes  cannot 
open  is  a  challenge  to  try ;  it  is  a  double  suggestion. 
This  was  exquisitely  demonstrated  upon  one  of  my 

1  Hvpnotism,  London,  1895,  4°- 
I2Q 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

subjects.  For  some  time  I  had  tried  in  vain  to  close 
the  eyes  by  making  the  usual  passes  and  giving  the 
usual  suggestions  of  drowsiness,  etc.  At  last  the 
subject,  who  was  apparently  wide-awake,  declared 
that  she  could  not  close  them  and  keep  them  closed. 
Catching  at  this  hint,  I  suddenly  remarked,  "You 
cannot  close  them !"  They  immediately  clapped  shut 
with  every  appearance  of  doing  it  automatically.  In 
another  case  in  which  the  usual  suggestions  seemed 
to  have  little  or  no  effect  the  subject  was  instructed 
to  keep  his  eyes  closed  voluntarily  for  a  while.  But 
his  eyes  opened  very  soon,  and  did  so  repeatedly. 
He  finally  declared  that  it  seemed  as  if  he  could  not 
keep  them  closed.  In  two  other  cases  it  was  found 
that  a  previously  formed  conviction  on  the  part  of 
the  subjects  that  they  were  suggestible  had  tended  to 
make  them  appear  more  passive  than  they  really 
were. 

What  was  looked  for,  then,  was  evidence  of 
spontaneity  or  originality  rather  than  mere  readiness 
of  response  or  its  opposite.  An  illustration  or  two 
will  make  this  clear.  To  one  subject  I  declared  that 
his  outstretched  arm  was  rigid  and  could  not  move. 
The  arm  immediately  stiffened  out,  but  began  a  series 
of  incipient  up-and-down  motions.  This  was  clearly 
a  product  of  my  own  suggestion,  as  were  also,  per- 
haps, the  sympathetic  writhings  of  the  body  and  con- 
tortions of  the  face.  The  cataleptic  arm  was  the 

right  one.     Presently  the  left  arm  was  raised  and 

130 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 

began  to  push  down  on  the  right  one,  evidently  in 
an  effort  to  lower  it.  Failing  in  the  effort,  the  left 
arm  itself  now  became  cataleptic,  and  could  not 
lower  itself.  Here  the  evidence  of  spontaneous  auto- 
suggestion is  unmistakable.  Contrast  this,  now, 
with  another  case  in  which  a  suggestion  was  given 
that  an  arm  was  cataleptic.  Certain  incipient  re- 
sponses to  the  challenge  were  made  as  before,  but 
they  ceased  in  a  few  seconds,  while  the  face  and  the 
rest  of  the  body  expressed  little  or  no  interest  in 
what  was  going  on. 

Let  us  compare  two  other  cases  that  are  less  strik- 
ing, and  yet  unambiguous.  In  both,  passes  in  front 
of  the  eyes  and  suggestions  of  heavy  eyelids,  etc., 
meet  with  very  slow  response,  so  slow  that  I  finally 
close  the  lids  with  my  fingers.  If,  now,  I  say,  "Your 
eyes  are  closed  .tight ;  you  cannot  open  them,"  both 
subjects  open  their  eyes.  Similarly,  they  can  un- 
clasp their  hands,  and  the  like,  whenever  they  are 
challenged  to  try.  Thus  far  the  two  cases  correspond 
point  for  point.  But  if,  after  closing  the  eyes,  I  leave 
the  subjects  alone,  'avoiding,  as  far  as  possible,  the 
giving  of  further  suggestions,  a  decided  difference 
presently  appears.  One  of  the  subjects  sits  with 
closed  eyes  for  an  indefinite  length  of  time,  that  is, 
shows  no  initiative;  but  the  other,  as  often  as  the 
experiment  is  repeated,  spontaneously  opens  his  eyes 
after  a  short  interval. 

Such  experimentation  resulted  in  separating  the 
131 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

cases  according  to  two  fairly  well-marked  types.  In 
respect  to  readiness  of  response  to  hypnotic  sugges- 
tion the  two  types  do  not  seriously  differ.  Under 
both  types  fall  cases  in  which  the  response  was  al- 
most immediate,  and  also  cases  in  which  it  was  very 
slow.  But  the  behavior  under  suggestion  was  decid- 
edly different.  Let  jus  call  the  two  typ5s  tTie  pa<;- 
jive  and  the  spontaneous.  Under  the  former  belong 
those  who  take  no  decided  or  original  part  in  the 
experiment.  Their  response  to  external  suggestion 
may  not  be  very  pronounced,  but  they  initiate  noth- 
ing after  once  they  have  begun  to  yield.  Under  the 
spontaneous  type  belong,  on  the  other  hand,  the  few 
who  appear  to  be  nonsuggestible  and  those  who, 
while  responding  to  suggestion,  take  a  more  or  less 
original  part  by  adding  to  the  experiment  or  by 
waking  themselves  up. 

Comparing  Groups  I,  II,  and  III  with  respect  to 
this  point,  we  find  certain  plain  differentiations.  To 
begin  with,  as  might  be  expected,  nearly  all  the  per- 
sons who  have  experienced  any  of  the  mental  or 
motor  automatisms  already  described  are  "passives." 
Thirteen  such  persons  were  experimented  upon,  and 
of  these  ten  clearly  belonged  to  the  passive  type. 
This  fact  makes  it  appear  that  the  two  types  here  de- 
scribed are  substantially  parallel  with  those  sifted 
out  by  certain  experiments  at  Harvard  University.1 

1  Cultivated  Motor  Automatism,  by  Gertrude   Stein,  Psychological  Review^ 
V,  agsff. 

132 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 

A  few  cases  were  not  accessible  for  purposes  of 
experiment.  The  numbers  experimented  upon  in  the 
three  groups  were  respectively  14,  12,  and  5.  The 
results  are  as  follows :  In  general,  the  line  between 
Groups  I  and  II  coincides  with  that  between  the  pas- 
sive and  the  spontaneous  types,  though  apparent  ex- 
ceptions exist,  and  though  the  interpretation  of  the 
facts  is  not  equally  clear  in  all  cases.  Of  the  14  cases 
in  Group  I  (persons  who  expected  a  striking  trans- 
formation and  experienced  it)  13  are  of  the  passive 
type.  Of  the  12  persons  in  Group  II  (expectation 
disappointed)  9  clearly  belong  to  the  spontaneous 
type,  i  is  entirely  passive,  and  2  are  open  to  some 
doubt.  Of  the  5  persons  in  Group  III  (striking  ex- 
perience, yet  disappointed)  2  are  passive  and  3  spon- 
taneous. In  the  accompanying  diagrams  the  shaded 
portions  represent  the  percentage  of  passive  sug- 
gestibility in  each  of  the  three  groups : 


Group  I. 


Group  II. 


Group  III. 


The  nature  of  the  evidence  may  be  further  illus- 
trated and  the  conclusion  still  further  strengthened 
by  reference  to  the  negative  and  doubtful  cases.  The 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

one  case  in  Group  I  that  is  not  clearly  passive  is  the 
one  first  mentioned  on  a  preceding  page  in  illustra- 
tion of  the  double  character  of  many  verbal  sug- 
gestions. This  case  is  therefore  probably  a  passive 
one,  though  not  so  counted  in  the  above  figures. 
Another  member  of  this  group  seemed  for  some  time 
to  be  an  exception  to  the  general  rule.  She  had  had 
three  striking  experiences,  and  yet  was  apparently  not 
suggestible.  One  day,  however,  mention  having  been 
made  in  the  class  in  psychology  of  pain  induced  in  a 
tooth  by  imagining  a  dental  operation,  she  soon  felt 
a  toothache.  It  became  intense  and  lasted  for  three 
or  four  hours,  the  face  meantime  becoming  sore  and 
apparently  swollen.  This  settled  the  question  of  pas- 
sive suggestibility.  Turning,  now,  to  the  negative 
and  doubtful  cases  in  Group  II,  we  find  that  the  one 
clearly  negative  case  is  one  that  stands  on  the  border 
between  Groups  I  and  II.  This  subject  had  more 
difficulty  in  classifying  himself  than  any  other  one 
in  either  group.  Again,  of  the  two  cases  scheduled 
as  doubtful,  one  is  the  only  case  in  this  entire  group 
in  which  any  form  of  mental  or  motor  automatism 
was  discovered.  Nevertheless,  the  case  remains 
ambiguous ;  for,  though  external  suggestions  are  ac- 
cepted with  every  sign  of  passivity,  the  subject  has 
heretofore  practiced  auto-suggestion,  even  to  the  ex- 
tent of  curing  toothache  and  other  minor  pains  there- 
by. His  present  passivity,  therefore,  may  be  partly 
or  wholly  due  to  training.  By  way  of  parenthesis 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 

it  may  be  remarked  that  each  subject  was  questioned 
as  to  whether  he  had  ever  been  hypnotized  or  had 
ever  witnessed  hypnotic  experiments,  and  his  re- 
actions were  judged  according  to  his  replies. 

The  correlation  between  one's  religious  experi- 
ence and  one's  type  of  suggestibility  was  sometimes 
found  to  be  curiously  complete.  Here,  for  example, 
is  a  subject  whose  response  to  passes  and  suggestions 
of  drowsiness  is  not  prompt ;  yet  when  the  response 
comes  it  simply  plumps  itself.  The  subject  is  now 
very  passive.  In  response  to  a  suggestion  an  arm 
quickly  becomes  cataleptic.  But,  in  the  midst  of  the 
experiment,  something  having  incidentally  appealed 
to  the  subject's  interest,  he  spontaneously  opens  his 
eyes  and  appears  to  be  completely  out  of  the  hyp- 
nosis. This  man  was  converted  at  the  age  of  six- 
teen with  marked  manifestations.  His  whole  being 
was  thrilled  with  joy,  and  he  had  what  he  regarded 
as  the  witness  of  the  Spirit.  But  from  seventeen  to 
nineteen  he  endured  terrible  storm  and  stress  in 
which  he  sought  in  vain  to  recover  his  original 
status.  He  finally  settled  down  to  the  conviction 
that  we  are  children  of  God  in  our  deeds  and 
thoughts  rather  than  in  our  particular  moods  and 
feelings. 

A  still  more  remarkable  parallel  is  as  follows: 
Response  very  prompt;  lids  clapped  shut  and  trem- 
bled. At  the  suggestion  that  they  could  not  open 
they  quickly  opened.  The  remark  was  then  made 

J35 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

that  perhaps  the  lids  would  not  close  so  promptly 
next  time.  The  suggestion  worked,  for  now  it  re- 
quired many  passes  to  shut  the  eyes.  Arm  refused 
to  become  cataleptic,  but  when  I  began  to  breathe 
deeply  and  slowly,  as  if  asleep,  the  subject's  head 
promptly  began  to  fall  over 'forward;  it  continued 
downward  until  it  rested  on  the  breast.  Subject 
now  apparently  in  a  deep  sleep;  but  after  a  while  a 
spontaneous  awakening  occurs.  He  is  now  rehyp- 
notized  and  told  that  he  cannot  pronounce  his  name ; 
a  gentle  struggle  ensues  and  lasts  for  a  considerable 
time,  but  the  effort  is  not  given  up  until  the  name  is 
successfully  pronounced.  The  characteristics  here 
are  initial  passivity  followed  after  a  while  by  de- 
cided spontaneity.  This  exactly  describes  the  sub- 
ject's religious  experiences  also.  On  two  different 
occasions,  after  earnestly  seeking  for  a  marked  ex- 
perience, he  happened  to  notice  some  incidental 
thing  in  his  environment  that  he  took  to  be  a  divine 
token.  Immediately  he  experienced  great  exalta- 
tion. His  heart's  desire  seemed  to  be  realized.  But 
after  a  few  days  the  emotion  waned,  and  reflection 
setting  in  pronounced  a  severe  verdict  upon  the 
whole  performance. 

In  order  to  appreciate  the  weight  of  these  results 
concerning  the  relation  of  suggestibility  to  religious 
transformations,  it  will  be  necessary  to  notice  once 
more  the  principle  upon  which  cases  were  classed 

in  Group  II.     This  group  contains  no  case  in  which 

136 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 

there  was  not  a  distinct  effort  to  obtain  an  experi- 
ence that  never  came.  Now,  of  the  77  persons  ex- 
amined there  are  many  whose  training  and  environ- 
ment were  equally  adapted  to  induce  expectation 
and  seeking  but  did  not  do  so.  It  is  therefore  prob- 
able that  spontaneous  auto-suggestion  prevented 
expectation  in  some  as  it  prevented  the  fulfillment 
of  expectation  in  others.  Hence,  the  sphere  in 
which  it  plays  a  decisive  role  is  undoubtedly  much 
larger  than  the  numerical  proportions  seem  to  in- 
dicate. 

Moreover,  no  statistical  display  can  do  justice  to 
facts  of  this  sort.  For  not  only  must  the  numbers 
express  in  some  degree  one's  interpretation  of  facts, 
and  not  merely  the  bare  facts  themselves,  but  the 
qualities  with  which  we  are  dealing  are  too  profound 
and  pervasive  to  be  expressed  in  any  simple  for- 
mula. The  whole  style  of  one's  mental  organization 
is  involved.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  any  observer  of 
human  nature  would  perceive  the  propriety  of  set- 
ting off  Groups  I  and  II  from  each  other  on  general 
grounds  and  without  reference  to  the  facts  upon 
which  this  part  of  our  study  is  based.  The  per- 
sonalities in  each  group  taken  by  itself  are  relatively 
alike,  while  the  two  groups  are  clearly  different  frbm 
each  other.  Psychology  merely  renders  this  ob- 
vious difference  more  precise  by  saying  that  the  dif- 
ference is  one  of  temperament  and  of  a  more  or  less 

spontaneous  attitude  toward  environment. 

137 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

Three  Favorable  Factors  in  Combination. 

It  has  been  shown  that  three  sets  of  factors  favorl 
the  attainment  of  a  striking  religious  transforma-( 
tion :  the  temperament  factor,  the  factor  of  expecta- 
tion, and  the  tendency  to  automatisms  and  passive 
suggestibility.  Let  us,  in  conclusion,  note  the  effect 
of  combining  these  three  factors.  Of  10  cases  in 
which  there  is  expectation  of  a  marked  transforma- 
tion, together  with  predominance  of  sensibility  and 
passive  suggestibility,  the  number  whose  expecta- 
tion was  satisfied  was  9.  But  of  n  cases  of  such 
expectation,  together  with  predominance  of  intellect 
or  of  will,  and  with  spontaneous  auto-suggestion, 
not  one  was'  satisfied.  These  numbers  include 
cases  from  Group  III  as  well  as  from  Groups  I 
and  II. 

If  our  groups  seem  to  contain  rather  few  cases,  it 
should  be  remembered  that  a  problem  of  this  kind 
requires  relatively  complete  knowledge  of  a  few 
jcases  rather  than  an  item  or  two  of  knowledge  re- 
garding many  cases.  Our  procedure  must  neces- 
sarily consist  in  a  gradual  narrowing  down  of  the 
range  of  cases,  together  with  increasing  minuteness 
of  scrutiny  in  each  case.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  we 
have  approached  about  as  closely  to  the  strict 
method  of  experiment  as  the  subject  permits.  The 
factors  are  so  definitely  identified  that  prediction 
becomes  safe  wherever  either  of  the  two  combina- 
tions just  mentioned  is  found  present.  Given  three 

138 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 

factors,  the  fourth — the  general  character  of  one's* 
religious  experiences — can  be  predicted  with  a  highj 
degree  of  probability. 

It  is  supposed  by  many  that  striking  transforma- 
tions in  the  affective  life  are  reserved  for  those  who 
have  been  great  sinners.  I  know  of  more  than  one 
person  who  has  been  tempted  to  become  a  great 
sinner  in  order  to  be  able  to  experience  a  brilliant 
conversion.  The  idea  seems  to  be  that  an  abrupt  tran- 
sition from  moral  badness  to  moral  goodness  natu- 
rally carries  great  emotional  disturbances  with  it. 
And  doubtless  such  circumstances  do  tend  to  inten- 
sify whatever  happens.  But  it  does  not  at  all  ap-/ 
pear  that  these  circumstances  are  the  chief  factors  J 
that  determine  the  degree  of  affective  transforma-  J 
tion  at  conversion.  For  among  the  cases  belonging 
to  Groups  I  and  III  there  is  only  a  meager  sprin- 
kling of  persons  who  had  ever  been  bad  in  any  very 
positive  sense.  In  fact,  of  the  entire  24  persons, 
only  5  report  having  experienced  any  sorrow  for 
specific  sins,  and  even  then  the  sin  repented  of  was 
generally  a  bad  temper  or  some  similar  infirmity. 
On  the  other  hand,  of  13  persons  in  Group  II, 
all  of  whom  sought  a  striking  transformation  in 
vain,  3  also  report  sorrow  for  specific  sins. 

In  short,  everything  goes  to  show  that  the  chief/ 
mental  qualities  and  states  favorable  to  these  strik-: 
ing  experiences  are  expectation,  abundance  of  feel- 
ing, and  passive  suggestibility  with  its  tendency  to 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

hallucinations  and  other  automatisms.  Shall  we 
therefore  conclude  that  conversion  is  practically  an 
automatic  performance  ?  Not  unless  we  first  define 
conversion  so  as  to  ignore  its  profound  relation  to 
God  and  to  the  principles  of  a  good  life.  If  conver- 
sion is  a  moral  renewal,  it  is  not  mere  psychical  pro- 
cess of  any  sort.  What  has  been  proved  is  simply 
that,  when  conversion  or  an  equivalent  change 
takes  place  in  one's  moral  attitude  toward  life  and 
destiny  and  God,  it  may  clothe  itself  in  certain 
emotional  habiliments  provided  certain  factors  are 
/present,  but  otherwise  not.  The  substance  of  re- 
/  ligious  experiences  as  far  transcends  their  emotional 
forms  as  a  man  transcends  the  clothes  he  wears. 

We  may,  however,  draw  from  these  facts  a  wa/h- 
ing  against  mistaking  the  clothes  for  the  man. 
"Would  you  cast  the  horoscope  of  a  human  life?" 
says  Fouillee.  "It  is  not  to  be  read  in  the  con- 
stellations of  the  sky,  but  in  the  actions  and  re- 
actions of  the  interior  astronomical  system;  do  not 
study  the  conjunction  of  the  stars,  but  those  of  the 
organs."1  Similarly,  we  may  now  add :  Would  you 
understand  the  emotional  aspects  of  religious  ex- 
periences? Do  not  ascribe  them  to  the  inscrutable 
ways  of  God,  but  to  ascertainable  differences  in 
men's  mental  constitutions;  do  not  theorize  about 
divine  grace,  but  study  the  hidden  workings  of  the 
human  mind!  

1  Temperament  et  Caractere%  Paris,  1895,  88. 
140 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 

Explanation  of  Trances,  Visions,  the  "Power/',  and 

the  Like. 

When  the  distinction  just  made  has  been  firmly 
grasped  we  shall  be  ready  to  perceive,  without  being 
shocked  by  it,  that  the  striking  psychic  manifesta- 
tions which  reach  their  climax  among  us  in  emo- 
tional revivals,  camp  meetings,  and  negro  services 
have  a  direct  relation  to  certain  states^  of  an  essen- 
tially hypnotic  and  hallucinatorYjdnd.  In  various 
forms  such  states  have  appeared  and  reappeared 
throughout  the  history  of  religion.  Examples  of 
what  is  here  referred  to  are  found  in  the  sacred 
frenzy  of  the  Bacchantes,  the  trance  of  the  sibyls, 
die  ecstasy  of  the  Neo-Platonists,  the  enlightenment 
that  came  to  Gautama  Buddha  under  the  sacred  Bo- 
tree,  the  visions  of  the  canonized  saints,  the  absorp- 
tion into  God  experienced  by  various  mystics,  and 
the  religious  epidemics  of  the  Middle  Ages,  such  as 
tarantism  and  St.  Vitus's  dance.  All  these  and  a 
multitude  of  similar  phenomena  were  produced  by 
processes  easily  recognized  by  any  modern  psychol- 
ogist as  automatic  and  suggestive.  Similarly,  the 
phenomenon  in  Methodist  history  known  as  the 
"power"  was  induced  by  hypnntir.  prnre^fg  *^w 
well  understood,  though  h'idden  until  long  after  the 
days  of  the  Wesleys.  John  Wesley  was  puzzled 
and  troubled  by  these  manifestations.  For  a  time 
it  was  not  uncommon  for  men  and  women  to  cry  out 

in  his  meetings  and  fall  unconscious,  or  seemingly 
10  141 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

so,  to  the  ground.  They  appeared  to  be  seized  by 
some  mysterious  power  that  contorted  their  limbs  or 
rendered  their  bodies  rigid.  They  saw  visions,  heard 
voices,  and  became  the  organ  of  what  seemed  like 
revelations.  Perhaps  nothing  in  the  career  of  Mr. 
Wesley  more  clearly  reveals  his  marvelous  practi- 
cal capacity  than  his  calm  and,  for  the  most  part, 
common-sense  treatment  of  such  occurrences.  A  re- 
ligious leader  who  had  been  in  touch  with  ghost- 
experiences  might  be  expected  to  be  particularly  im- 
pressed by  these  new  phenomena.  Nothing  would 
seem  "more  natural  than  that  he  should  cultivate 
them,  both  as  a  means  of  attracting  the  attention  of 
the  masses  and  as  an  attestation  of  divine  truth.  This 
was,  in  fact,  the  policy  of  many  religious  leaders,  as, 
for  example,  of  Swedenborg.  We  have  had  some 
touches  of  that  sort  of  religious  propagandism  even 
in  our  own  country.  Both  Increase  Mather  and  his 
son,  Cotton,  zealously  asserted  the  truth  of  witch- 
craft because  it  seemed  to  prove  the  reality  of  spirit- 
ual things.  But  Wesley  had  the  wisdom  to  perceive 
that  these  apparently  divine  or  demoniac  posses- 
sions were  matters  aside  from  his  main  business. 
As  a  result,  though  the  "power"  continued  to  ac- 
company the  Methodist'  movement  for  fully  two 
generations,  and  has  not  even  now  entirely  disap- 
peared, it  never  in  any  way  became  grafted  upon  the 
stock  of  Methodist  beliefs. 

The  explanation  of  the  "power"  and  similar  out- 
142 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 

breaks  is  simple.  Under  the  pressure  of  religious 
excitement  there  occurs  a  sporadic  case  of  hallucina- 
tion, or  of  motor  automatism,  or  of  auto-hypnotism 
taking  the  form  of  trance,  visions,  voices,  or  cata- 
lepsy. The  on-lookers  naturally  conceive  a  more  or 
less  distressing  fear  lest  the  mysterious  power  attack 
their  own  persons.  Fear  acts  as  a  suggestion,  and  the 
more  suggestible  soon  realize  their  expectation.  In 
accordance  with  the  law  of  suggestion,  every  new 
case  adds  power  to  the  real  cause,  and  presently  the 
conditions  are  ripe  for  an  epidemic  of  such  ex- 
periences. 

Trances  like  that  of  the  Buddha  are  brought 
about  in  substantially  the  same  way,  namely,  by  ab- 
stracting the  mind  from  its  ordinary  multiplicity  of 
interests  and  narrowing  the  attention  until  self-con- 
scious control  lapses  and  one  seems  to  be  absorbed 
in  the  infinite.  The  lapsing  from  one's  self  which 
is  interpreted  as  the  dissolution  of  individuality,  or 
as  absorption  into  divinity,  can  be  easily  experienced 
and  understood  through  the  practice  of  self-hyp- 
notization.  All  that  is  necessary  is  prolonged  fix- 
ation of  attention  upon  any  simple  object.  It  is 
the  process  actually  cultivated  to-day  by  theoso- 
phists  of  the  type  of  Mrs.  Besant. 

We  should  not  be  hasty  in  condemning  all  such 
states,  for  it  is  entirely  conceivable  that  moral  and 
religious  ends  are  now  and  then  really  served  by 
them.  The  divine  Spirit  might  make  a  revelation 

143 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

to  the  Buddha  or  to  some  of  the  Hebrew  prophets 
through  a  trance.  About  hypnotic  processes  as 
such  there  is  nothing  essentially  bad  or  essentially 
good;  everything  depends  upon  their  content  and 
the  use  made  of  them.  The  modern  mind,  of 
course,  does  not  look  upon  these  phenomena  as 
special  evidence  of  the  immediate  presence  of  God 
or  of  a  spirit;  but  no  more  should  we  regard  what- 
ever comes  through  this  channel  as  necessarily 
worthless.  The  most  that  can  be  said  is  that,  in 
general,  the  normal  functions  of  the  mind,  or,  if  the 
expression  be  preferred,  the  functions  that  take 
place  either  instinctively  or  with  the  highest  self- 
consciousness  and  self-control,  are  the  ones  most 
likely  to  bring  forth  a  normal  and  healthful  product. 
The  ultimate  test  of  religious  values,  however,  is 
nothing  psychological,  nothing  definable  in  terms 
of  the  how  it  happens,  but  something  ethical,  de- 
finable only  in  terms  of  the  what  is  attained  of  loving 
trust  toward  God  and  brotherly  kindness  toward 
men. 

Employment  of  Suggestion  in  Revival  Meetings. 
Thoughtful  persons  have  again  and  again  asked 

i  whether  the  persuasive  power  of  a  certain  class  of 
evangelists  is  not  essentially  hypnotic  in  character. 
For  example,  the  pastor  of  a  church  in  the  State  of 
Illinois  related  to  me  how  an  evangelist,  by  merely 

walking  through  the  aisles  of  a  church  saying  a 

144 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 

word  to  persons  here  and  there,  and  perhaps  touch- 
ing them,  induced  them  to  go  forward  to  the  mourn- 
ers' bench  in  large  numbers.  But  the  pastor  was 
puzzled  by  the  fact  that  most  of  these  persons  were 
obviously  unprepared  to  take  such  a  step  in  real 
earnestness  or  with  due  appreciation  of  its  signifi- 
cance. This  was  proved  both  by  their  lack  of  re- 
ligious training  and  intelligence  and  by  the  utterly 
superficial  results  of  the  meeting.  Within  a  few 
hours,  if  not  miijutes,  a  large  proportion  of  those 
who  were  apparently  penitent  in  the  meeting  were 
laughing  the  whole  proceeding  to  scorn.  The  pas- 
tor was  undoubtedly  right  in  surmising  that  merely 
hypnotic  or  suggestive  rather  than  moral  or  religious 
influences  were  the  decisive  ones  in  this  case. 

It  is  said  that  when  a  certain  evangelist  invited 
sinners  forward  he  sometimes  broke  out,  before  a 
single  person  had  started  from  his  seat,  into  the  ex- 
clamation, "See  them  coming!  See  them  coming! 
See  them  coming!"  meantime  pointing  to  various 
parts  of  the  crowded  house.  Now,  if  a  professional 
hypnotizer  should  employ  precisely  the  same  means 
to  bring  subjects  to  the  platform,  he  would  prob- 
ably succeed,  though  his  power  would  go  under 
some  other  name  than  preaching  or  oratory. 

The  law  of  suggestion  is  that  one's  ideas  tend  to 
realize  themselves;  that  is,  if  anyone  thinks  of  a 
state,  mental  or  physical,  he  tends  to  fall  into  that 

state,  and  will  do  so  unless  this  tendency  is  inhibited. 

145 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

The  thought  of  eating  makes  the  mouth  water ;  the 
thought  of  burglars  in  the  house  makes  one  hear 
them;  listening  to  a  singer  who  mismanages  his 
voice  has  sometimes  given  musicians  a  sore  throat. 
Suggestion  works  in  proportion  as  it  secures  a  mo- 
nopoly of  the  attention.  Let  us  ask  what,  according 
to  this  law,  will  happen  to  passively  suggestible  per- 
sons who  submit  themselves  to  certain  well-known 
revival  practices.  Let  us  suppose  that  the  notion  of 
a  striking  transformation  has  been  held  before  the 
subject's  mind  for  days,  weeks,  or  even  years ;  let  us 
suppose  that  the  subject  has  finally  been  induced  to 
go  to  the  penitent  form;  here,  we  will  suppose, 
prayers  full  of  sympathy  and  emotional  earnestness 
are  offered  for  him,  and  that  everything  has  been  so 
arranged  as  to  produce  a  climax  in  which  he  will 
finally  believe  that  the  connection  between  himself 
and  God  is  now  accomplished.  The  leader  says  to 
him,  "Do  you  now  believe?  Then  you  are  saved!" 
Is  it  not  evident  that  this  whole  process  favors  the 
production  of  a  profound  emotional  transformation 
directly  through  suggestion? 

It  does  not  necessarily  follow  that  conversions 
thus  brought  about  are  worthless.  The  worth  of  the 
experience  depends,  not  upon  the  presence  or  ab- 
sence of  suggestion,  but  upon  whether  it  includes 
a  decision  and  a  renewal  that  reach  deep  into  the 
springs  of  conduct.  The  form  of  John  Wesley's 

conversion  was  perhaps  determined  by  suggestion, 

146 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 

but  we  know,  from  both  his  earlier  and  his  later  life, 
that  his  moral  nature  was  now  stirred  to  the  depths. 
Suggestion,  then,,  may  lend  shining  garments  to  the 
change  that  takes  place  whenever  the  decisive  de- 
termination of  the  will  occurs;  or,  when  the  moral 
awakening  is  superficial,  suggestion  may  delude  into 
the  belief  that  a  given  change  is  more  profound  than 
it  really  is.  In  the  latter  case  we  may  look  for 
evanescence  like  that  of  the  morning  dew.  The  dan-l 
ger,  then,,  is  that  what  is  a  product  of  mere  sugges-l  / 
tion  should  be  mistaken  for  special  evidence  of  the 
presence  of  God  or  of  a  renewal  of  character. 

Another  danger — greater,  perhaps,  than  even 
this — is  that  the  mind  shall  become  expectantly 
fixed  upon  the  attainment  of  some  experience  that 
the  seeker's  mental  make-up  will  forever  prevent 
him  from  attaining.  Groups  II  and  III  are  made  up 
of  persons  who  have  suffered  this  misfortune.  They 
were  taught  to  seek  something  which  their  men- 
tal constitution  renders  practically  impossible.  And 
what  was  the  result?  In  some  cases  square  revolt 
against  the  entire  notion  of  personal  religious  ex- 
perience ;  in  other  cases  an  immense  waste  of  nerv- 
ous energy  upon  an  impossible  quest;  in  all  cases 
those  who  were  seeking  to  be  God's  children  were 
made  to  feel  like  slaves  instead  of  sons.  One  of 
them  could  not  help  feeling  like  a  hypocrite  when- 
ever he  took  any  part  in  church  life  because,  in  spite 
of  his  seeking,  he  had  experienced  none  of  the  "so- 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

called  religious  experiences."  He  finally  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  "there  is  nothing,  absolutely 
nothing  in  religion  (in  the  sense  in  which  I  take  it 
the  question  is  asked)  that  it  seems  to  me  I  can 
absolutely  rely  upon."  Another  says  of  his  conver- 
sion :  "I  was  very  happy  that  night,  but  the  next  day 
I  was  most  wretched.  It  all  seemed  a  mockery  to 
me.  .  .  .  But  I  told  no  one  my  feelings,  and  was 
too  proud  to  let  anyone  know  how  I  had  been  de- 
luded." He  went  on,  however,  trying  to  do  all  he 
could,  and  hoping  that  the  experience  would  come 
some  day,  but  it  never  came ;  he  had  to  discover  how 
to  be  religious  in  spite  of  this  supposed  lack.  Still 
another  writes :  "I  ushered  myself  into  the  faith  that 
I  would  experience  an  overwhelming  and  constant 
joy,  and  peace  unbroken  and  unexcitable;  that  I 
should  have  victory  over  a  vicious  temper,  help  in 
completely  forgetting  self  and  being  at  leisure  from 
.my  own  interests  to  help  others,  love  for  my  enemies 
(so  that  they  would  eventually  become  my  friends)  ; 
and,  finally,  my  idea  of  God's  presence  was  peculiar, 
but  I  think  common  to  many  young  converts — that 
there  would  be  a  strange  inner  purpose,  a  kind  of 
tugging  at  my  will  power  by  a  Power  divine  that 
would  suggest  to  do  and  not  to  do.  None  of  these 
things  came  out  as  I  expected.  I  have  ceased  to 
believe  that  feeling  has  any  religious  significance. 
It  seems  to  be  subject  to  the  most  capricious  moods." 

The  next  instance  that  I  desire  to  cite  presents 
148 


RELIGIOUS  DYNAMICS 

features  that  are  unusual  but  nevertheless  instruct- 
ive as  showing  what  is  to  be  expected  from  a  certain 
type  of  revival  work.  "They  told  me,"  says  the 
writer,  "to  read  the  Bible,  and  I  read.  They 
told  me  to  pray,  and  I  prayed.  They  said, 
'Now,  all  you  have  to  do  to  be  saved  is  to  go 
to  the  mourners'  bench  and  ask  God  to  forgive 
you,  and  be  blessed.'  They  told  me  I  would  know 
the  very  instant  that  he  saved  me,  and  that  I  would 
know  it  just  as  definitely  as  I  knew  anything.  I 
became  greatly  wrought  up,  and  it  was  very  hard 
for  me  to  keep  my  seat  when  they  called  for  those  to 
rise  who  wished  to  be  prayed  for.  I  went  forward 
night  after  night  expecting  a  sudden  reversal  of  my 
whole  being.  The  meetings  closed;  I  had  had  no 
change,  no  experience.  I  was  the  same  afterward 
as  I  was  before  except  that  I  was  more  or  less  dis- 
gusted and  ashamed  of  myself  to  think  that  I  had 
been  so  foolish.  I  almost  concluded  that  it  was  all 
nonsense."  During  a  subsequent  season  he  tried 
again.  "Here  again,"  he  says,  "I  expected  a  sud- 
den change,  but  the  change  never  came,  and  I  was 
more  than  ever  convinced  that  it  was  all  bosh.  I 
almost  swore  that  I  would  never  bother  myself 
about  it  again,  for  I  felt  that  I  had  given  the  matter 
due  consideration."  Still  again  he  made  the  effort. 
"Often  I  arose  from  my  knees  almost  mad  at  myself 
for  praying  after  having  prayed  so  often  without 

results." 

149 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

The  cruelty  unintentionally  practiced  upon  those 
who  desire  to  be  disciples  of  Christ  is,  or  ought  to 
be,  not  a  whit  less  revolting  than  the  bodily  mutila- 
tions prescribed  by  many  a  savage  ritual.  One 
among  the  persons  responding  to  my  questionnaire 
sought  in  vain  for  twelve  years  to  attain  what  he 
was  taught  to  expect;  another  sought  for  eight 
years,  another  for  four  or  five.  It  clearly  appears 
that  many  a  consecrated  soul  endures  a  gnawing 
uncertainty  and  unrest  concerning  the  favor  of  God. 
The  papers  show  disappointment,  confusion,  a  cloud 
upon  the  mind,  reaction  against  the  Church  or  even 
against  Christianity  itself.  One  writer  came  at  one 
period  of  his  career  to  conceive  it  as  his  highest  am- 
bition to  prove  to  the  world  that  it  was  possible  to 
live  a  moral  life  irrespective  of  religion.  That 
nearly  all  these  persons  finally  found  a  more  ex- 
cellent way  does  not  detract  at  all  from  the  folly  of 
the  methods  which  brought  them  into  suffering  and 
antagonism.  The  facts  cry  out  that  we  should  ap- 
prehend more  clearly  what  is  essential  and  what 
incidental  in  religious  experience. 
(  The  present  study  has  necessarily  been  largely  oc- 
cupied with  the  consideration  of  religious  incidents 
and  abnormalities. )  In  a  subsequent  one  (Chapter 
V)  the  aim  will  be  to  offer  a  positive  definition  of 

what  is  essential  and  normal  in  spiritual  life. 

150 


DIVINE  HEALING 


CHAPTER  IV 
A  Study  of  Divine  Healing 

THAT  religion  has  some  relation  to  health  is  clear  ' 
from  almost  every  page  of  the  history  of  religions.  * 
It  is  manifest,  likewise,  in  contemporary  religious 
phenomena.  We  need  not  go  back  to  the  time  when 
as  yet  the  distinction  and  consequent  division  of 
labor  between  religion  and  theology  on  the  one  side 
and  the  sciences  and  arts  on  the  other  were  unknown 
• — when  the  medicine  man  was  at  once  healer,  miracle  , 
worker,  wise  man,  and  revealer  of  the  will  of  the 
divinities;  for  our  own  most  enlightened  communi- 
ties furnish  examples  of  considerable  groups  of  men 
and  women  to  whom  religion  itself  means  health  of 
body  as  well  as  of  soul.  Nay,  there  are  those  among 
us  to  whom  the  indwelling  of  the  divine  Being  seems 
to  imply  such  inspiration  and  power  of  execution  as 
practically  to  dispense  with  laborious  study  in  the 
acquisition  of  the  fine  arts,  at  least  the  art  of  music. 
Even  within  the  two  great  branches  of  historical 
Christianity,  the  Catholic  and  the  Protestant,  there 
lives  and  even  flourishes  a  belief  in  the  efficacy  of 
faith,  of  relics,  or  of  the  intercession  of  saints. 

Every  one  of  these  groups,  too — Christian  Scien- 
tists, faith  healers,  and  adorers  of  relics — is  ready  to  , 

have  its  belief  judged  by  the  fruits  of  it  in  the  actual  I 

151 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

restoration  of  the  sick  to  health.  If  there  ever  was 
a  day  when  the  evidence  thus  offered  could  properly 
be  put  aside  with  a  sneer  at  human  credulity,  that  day 
has  gone.  These  things  are  not  done  in  a  corner. 
On  every  hand  we  are  invited  to  come  and  see ;  and 
any  disposition  that  may  be  shown  to  ignore  the  facts 
thus  open  to  observation,  while  at  the  same  time 
wholly  condemning  the  beliefs  in  the  name  of  which 
they  are  wrought,  justly  leads  to  a  charge  of  preju- 
dice and  lack  of  scientific  method.  In  fact,  the  evi- 
dence of  most  remarkable  cases  of  healing  under  all 
these  systems  of  belief  is  so  abundant  that  I  shall  not 
hesitate  to  assume  without  argument  that  we  are  here 
dealing  with  one  or  more  genuine  curative  agencies. 
For  the  sake  of  completeness  certain  other  groups 
of  beliefs  and  apparent  facts,  though  antagonistic  to 
those  already  mentioned,  may  be  classified  with  them. 
|  Witchcraft,  for  example,  presents  in  its  malignant 
(influence  upon  health  the  exact  counterpart  of  the 
systems  of  healing  already  referred  to.  The  theory 
is  that,  by  means  of  powers  and  influences  loaned  by 
the  prince  of  darkness,  the  witch  or  wizard  is  able  to 
practice  upon  the  health  and  even  life  of  men  with- 
out recourse  to  any  means  recognized  by  human 
science.  Thus,  a  witch  can  torment  a  victim  by 
merely  fixing  her  evil  eye  upon  him,  or  by  sticking 
pins  into  a  figure  made  to  represent  him.  Witch- 
craft, in  fact,  is  never  more  than  half  understood 

until  we  recognize  in  it  a  mediaeval  doctrine  amount- 

152 


DIVINE  HEALING 

ing  almost  to  a  belief,  in  both  a  good  and  an  evil 
divinity.  The  kingdom  'of  Satan  corresponds  with 
the  kingdom  of  God.  Thus,  Satan  has  his  priests, 
his  solemn  assemblies,  his  sacraments,  his  vows,  his 
ministering  angels,  all  corresponding  point  for  point 
with  the  Christian  belief  of  the  time.  Just  so,  the 
control  over  nature  exercised  by  Christ  and  the  apos- 
tles and  granted  to  men  of  faith  has  its  counterpart 
in  black  magic.  To  deny  without  examining  the 
evidence  that  diseases  were  actually  produced  by 
these  supposedly  demoniacal  influences  would  be  on 
the  same  level  as  the  parallel  denial  of  the  cures 
claimed  in  our  own  day  in  the  name  of  religion. 
Indeed,  it  is  scarcely  credible  that  there  should  be  no 
fire  where  there  was  so  much  smoke.  The  very  fact 
that  witchcraft  was  implicitly  believed  by  the  whole 
of  Europe  for  many  generations  carries  with  it  a 
strong  probability  that  it  had  some  basis  in  fact, 
however  inadequate  and  misunderstood.  Between 
these  extremes,  witchcraft  on  the  one  side  and  di- 
vine healing  on  the  other,  lie  many  groups  of  ap- 
parently related  phenomena,  such  as  healing  under 
the  inspiration  or  guidance  of  spirits,  or  by  "animal 
magnetism,"  mesmerism,  or  the  mind  cure  with  its 
various  names.  Finally,  the  medical  profession  of 
the  present  day  makes  large  use  of  modes  of  healing 
that  dispense,  in  certain  classes  of  cases,  with  the  use 
of  drugs  or  other  physical  means,  and  substitute, 
therefor  processes  recognized  as  wholly  mental. 

iS3 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

All  these  modes  of  producing  or  removing  dis- 
ease have  so  thorough  a  prima  facie  resemblance  that 
we  may  be  reasonably  confident  of  actual  community 
between  them  in  some  underlying  law  of  nature.  To 
show  the  existence  of  such  a  law  and  its  applicability 
to  certain  religious  problems  of  our  day  is  the  main 
purpose  of  the  present  study. 

A  Bit  of  History. 

In  spite  of  the  intrinsic  importance  and  the  strik- 
ing character  of  the  facts  or  alleged  facts  just  re- 
ferred to,  and  in  spite  of  much  apparently  good  evi- 
dence for  them,  not  until  the  present  generation  were 
they  made  an  object  of  anything  like  thorough  scien- 
tific study.  The  reasons  for  the  omission  are  not  far 
to  seek :  they  lie  in  all  the  influences  that  caused  the 
scientific  study  of  matter  to  precede  the  scientific 
study  of  mind,  and  in  the  apparently  inextricable 
mingling  of  superstition,  delusion,  and  fact.  Even 
yet  there  are  many  men  of  science  who  have  such  a 
horror  of  defilement  by  contact  with  superstition  that 
they  are  scarcely  willing  to  approve  the  scientific  ex- 
ploration of  that  swamp  land  of  the  human  mind, 
spiritism  and  its  affinities.  In  the  interest  of  the 
purity  of  science  the  most  obvious  course  to  pursue 
with  regard  to  these  apparently  preternatural  cases 
of  healing  and  the  reverse  was  to  label  them  all 
"superstition"  or  "delusion"  and  cast  them  all  on 
the  rubbish  heap  of  science.  But  the  portentous 


DIVINE  HEALING 

mass  of  testimony  could  not  be  permanently  disposed 
of  by  a  scoff.  And  so  it  came  about  that,  in  spite  of 
sneers  and  danger  of  losing  scientific  standing,  vari- 
ous students  dared  to  treat  the  facts  as  a  subject  for 
serious  inquiry. 

Mesmer's  performances  at  the  close  of  the  last 
century  gave  the  initial  impulse  to  such  studies. 
Nevertheless,  up  to  a  few  years  ago  investigation 
was  spasmodic  and  for  the  most  part  unfruitful.  A 
shining  exception  is  the  work  of  the  Englishman 
Braid,  at  about  the  middle  of  this  century.  His  re- 
searches had  actually  led  to  the  introduction  of  hyp- 
nosis as  an  anaesthetic  agent  in  surgery,  when  this 
really  great  discovery  was  overshadowed  and  for- 
gotten through  the  apparently  still  greater  discovery 
of  the  surgical  uses  of  ether  and  chloroform.  Thus 
it  came  about  that  mental  healing  did  not  attain  I 
standing  as  a  scientific  fact  until  the  present  genera- 1 
tion. 

The  new  movement  may  be  dated  from  the  publi- 
cation of  either  one  of  several  works,  such  as  D.  H. 
Tuke's  Illustrations  of  the  Influence  of  the  Mind 
upon  the  Body,  the  first  edition  of  which  dates  back 
to  1872,  or  Bernheim's  De  la  Suggestion,  which  ap- 
peared in  1884.  The  latter,  which  in  the  English 
translation  bears  the  title  Suggestive  Therapeutics, 
stands  related  to  scientific  mental  healing  much  as 
Darwin's  Origin  of  Species  does  to  the  theory  of 
evolution.  At  the  present  time,  though  gaps  remain 

i55 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

in  our  knowledge,  much  that  was  once  doubtful  has 
been  verified,  much  that  was  mysterious  has  been 
reduced  to  law,  and  a  multitude  of  investigators  is 
pressing  closer  and  closer  upon  the  secrets  that  re- 
main. The  fact  of  mental  healing  is  fully  recog- 
nized, its  general  law  has  been  formulated,  and  in 
many  hospitals  and  in  the  private  practice  of  many 
physicians  this  law  is  being  practically  and  system- 
atically applied  for  the  removal  of  many  disorders. 

The  Laiv  of  Mental  Healing  Stated  and  Illustrated. 
The  law,  which  is  called  the  law  of  suggestion, 
can  best  be  approached  by  analyzing  a  few  of  our 
most  homely  experiences.  To  begin  a  long  way  from 
the  center,  everybody  knows  that  emotion  h^s,  prn.- 
fn^nrl  eflfcrffi  lip™-'  *hg  ]->r>r1y  It  makes  us  weak,  as  in 
fear,  or  weary,  as  in  anxiety  or  even  from  excess  of 
joy.  Emotion  affects  the  appetite,  the  circulation 
of  the  blood,  and  the  functions  of  nutrition  and  secre- 
tion. Some  emotions  are  distinctly  freajthful.^and 
others,  when  much  indulged,  are  as  distinctly  tHfe 
wholesome^  A  cheerful  state  of  mind  tends  to  good 
digestion  and  to  a  good  general  tone  of  the  system. 
This  is  the  reason  why  table-talk,  as  is  everywhere 
recognized,  ought  to  be  of  a  light  and  pleasant  kind. 
The  maxim,  "Laugh  and  grow  fat,"  is  kept  alive  by 
its  inherent  truth.  Again,  not  only  is  it  true  that  in- 
digestion tends  to  give  one  the  blues,  but  also,  con- 
versely, that  the  blues  tend  to  give  one  indigestion. 

156 


DIVINE  HEALING 

Of  all  the  emotions,  however,  perhaps  fear  has  the 
most  serious  ill  effects.  "There  is  no  more  effectual 
depressant,  no  surer  harbinger  of  disease  than  fear," 
says  Tuckey.  "Much  of  the  immunity  from  infec- 
tion enjoyed  by  physicians  and  nurses  is  due,  partly 
to  the  preoccupation  of  their  minds,  which  leaves  no 
room  for  selfish  terror,  and  partly  to  the  confidence 
begotten  by  long  familiarity  with  danger."1  Emo- 
tion, then,  has  much  to  do  with  health  and  disease 
and  mental  healing  will,  accordingly,  be  found  to 
consist,  in  no  small  degree,  in  replacing  depressing 
states  with  more  cheery  and  invigorating  ones. 

It  is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge  that  many 
physicians,  either  through  natural  endowment  of 
disposition,  through  their  unconscious  manners,  or 
through  a  deliberately  cultivated  art,  have  a  whole- 
some influence  upon  their  patients  entirely  apart  from 
any  physical  treatment  that  may  be  administered. 
In  fact,  no  physician  can  avoid  administering  much 
more  than  his  medicines,  whether  that  something 
be  helpful  or  deleterious.  Under  precisely  thi% ; prin- 
ciple the  various  forms  of  divine  healing  have  an 
initial  advantage,  in  that  they  point  the  mind  of  the 
patient  to  an  infinite  supply  of  beneficent  po\ver. 
Thereby  fear  is  allayed,  hope  is  begotten,  and  the 
atmosphere  of  the  mind  becomes  salubrious. 

Thus  far  we  have  considered  nothing  but  the  emo- 
tional state,  which  may  be  compared  to  the  mental 

1  C.  Lloyd  Tuckey,  Psycho-Therapeutics^  London,  1891,  14. 
11  157 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

atmosphere.  Let  us  next  note  the  physical  effects  of 
specific  ideas.  These  may  be  compared  to  the  objects 
that  are  seen  through  the  atmosphere.  Let  the  mind 
dwell  for  a  moment,  let  us  say,  upon  the  look  of 
peaches  and  cream  standing  upon  the  table  and  all 
ready  to  be  eaten.  The  result  is  that  the  mouth 
waters.  Let  us  analyze  this  everyday  occurrence. 
The  ideas  were  those  of  food  and  eating,  and  by 
merely  holding  them  in  the  mind  we  found  certain 
of  the  organs  employed  in  eating  aroused  to  their 
normal  function.  There  was  no  intention  of  setting 
the  salivary  glands  at  work,  but  they  proceeded  as  if 
the  food  thought  about  had  been  actually  placed  in 
the  mouth.  There  appears  to  be  a  real  connection, 
therefore,  between  the  physical  function  and  the  idea 
of  it,  or  of  something  habitually  associated  therewith. 
It  would  be  easy  to  show  the  same  thing  with  vari- 
ous other  physical  functions.  Who  does  not  know, 
for  instance,  that  the  fear  or  even  thought  of  blush- 
ing is  often  enough  to  suffuse  the  cheeks?  Ask  a 
sensitive  person  why  he  is  blushing,  and  he  will 
blush  for  response.  By  a  faithful  application  of  this 
principle  orators  and  actors  can  at  last  train  them- 
selves to  shed  real  tears  upon  demand.  Nausea  may 
be  induced  by  the  mere  recollection  of  a  previous 
nauseating  experience.  A  bit  of  tainted  food  takes 
away  the  appetite  for  all  food.  The  feeling  of  sea- 
sickness may  be  revived  by  merely  stepping  aboard 

an  ocean  steamer  and  smelling  the  odors  from  the 

158 


DIVINE  HEALING 

galley  and  the  rubber  mats.  A  person  who  had  suf- 
fered from  seasickness  within  sight  of  a  certain  piece 
of  shore  could  not  look  upon  a  photograph  of  that 
part  of  the  coast  for  weeks  thereafter  without  suf- 
fering a  partial  return  of  the  original  misery.  The 
fceart  is  decidedly  subject  to  similar  influences,  as 
when  the  pulse  becomes  rapid  from  the  thought  that 
it  is  to  be  examined.  A  physician  informs  me  that 
it  is  common  for  the  pulse  of  healthy  applicants  for 
life  insurance  to  become  abnormally  rapid,  and  even 
to  necessitate  the  postponement  of  the  examination, 
all  because  the  thoughts  are  turned  in  the  direction 
of  the  heart. 

Jnnrrlrirmnl  pr*-^rmfltices.  normal  and  abnormal, 
may  often  he  snppr^nnH  in  thf  same  way.  Hence, 
patients  in  a  sanatorium  are  likely  to  be  advised  not 
to  converse  with  one  another  about  their  complaints. 
To  get  one's  mind  into  the  right  channel  physicians 
frequently  advise  "a  change  of  scene."  Now,  change 
of  scene  is  often  nothing  more  or  less  than  a  method 
of  mental  healing.  Again,  one  can  sometimes  post- 
pone or  even  stop  a  tendency  to  cough  by  resolutely 
thinking  about  something  else,  whereas  thinking 
about  it  is  one  of  the  surest  means  of  prolonging  it. 
Similarly,  when  laughter  becomes  self-conscious  it 
goes  on  of  itself  and  may  eventually  become  uncon- 
trollable. I  once  made  an  impromptu  experiment 
upon  inhibition  by  suggestion.  To  a  person  who 
was  on  the  point  of  sneezing  I  suddenly  exclaimed, 

i59 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

"You  cannot  sneeze!"  To  the  amazement  of  the 
person  experimented  upon,  the  incipient  sneeze  was 
instantly  inhibited  so  that  it  never  executed  itself. 

A  child  stubs  its  toe  and  falls.  Immediately  it 
looks  up  to  its  mother  with  surprise  and  doubt  plainly 
engraved  upon  its  features.  It  has  every  appearance 
of  looking  for  its  cue.  If  the  mother  shows  alarm, 
and  offers  to  sympathize  with  the  supposed  pain  of 
the  child,  the  latter  bursts  out  into  agonized  weeping. 
But  if  the  mother  smiles,  ancl  assumes  that  the  fall 
has  done  no  harm,  the  child  takes  that  cue  with  al- 
most equal  readiness.  A  boy  of  perhaps  eight  or 
nine  years  was  troubled  with  a  slight  asthma.  When- 
ever he  returned  from  a  visit  to  his  grandmother  he 
was  audibly  worse.  The  mother  said  that  it  came 
about  in  this  way:  The  grandmother  would  say, 
"Come  here,  child,  and  let  me  hear  you  breathe!" 
Then  followed  exclamations  and  fussing  and  cod- 
dling until  the  child  believed  that  he  was  in  a  bad 
way,  and  actually  returned  home  with  his  asthma 
perceptibly  aggravated. 

Apparently,  suggestion  might  carry  very  suscep- 
tible persons  into  their  grave.  There  may  be  truth 
in  the  story — it  has  respectable  authority  for  itself 
— that  a  French  prisoner  actually  died  from  the  be- 
lief that  he  was  being  bled  to  death.  Experimenters 
pretended  to  open  an  artery  in  one  of  his  arms,  con- 
cealing the  arm  meanwhile  from  his  view.  To  simu- 
late the  flowing  of  blood,  they  caused  a  stream  of 

1 60 


DIVINE  HEALING 

warm  water  to  trickle  upon  the  supposed  wound. 
The  prisoner,  believing  that  he  was  bleeding  to  death, 
is  said  to  have  gone  through  all  the  appropriate 
symptoms,  and  finally  to  have  died  as  the  result  of 
the  experiment. 

Let  us  now  formulate  the  law  that  is  indicated  in 
these  examples.    It  is  that  the  thought  of  a  function  ( 
tends  to  bring  on  that  function,  and  the  thought  of 
its  contrary  tends  to  inhibit  it.     More  briefly  ex- 
pressed, the  bodily  life  tends  to  conform  itself  to  our  J 
ideas  of  it.    The  suggestion  may  be  direct  or  indirect ; 
that  is,  a  function  may  be  brought  on  by  thinking! 
of  the  organ  itself  in  a  certain  way,  or  by  thinkingj 
of  some  circumstance  in  which  the  organ  might  be 
placed.     The  salivary  glands  might  be  set  at  work 
by  merely  thinking  how  watering  of  the  mouth  feels, 
or  by  looking  at  peaches  or  other  food  with  no  dis- 
tinct thought  of  the  mouth.    In  both  cases  the  law  of 
suggestion  finds  exemplification. 

From  these  simple  illustrations  of  suggestion  in 
everyday  life  we  pass  on  to  experiment  proper. 
A  simple  experiment,  first  performed  by  Braid,  con- 
sists in  having  a  person  fix  his  eyes  and  his  attention 
for  several  minutes  upon  any  point  in  the  palm  of 
his  hand.  This  is  generally  enough  to  produce  a 
distinct  sensation  at  the  point  of  regard.  The  ex- 
periment may  be  varied,  however,  and  rendered 
somewhat  more  certain  of  results,  by  telling  what  sen- 
sations may  be  looked  for,  such  as  cooling,  burning", 

161 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

tickling,  tingling,  pricking,  numbness,  aching.  I 
have  performed  the  experiment  many  times,  and 
with  unvarying  success.  On  one  occasion  I  re- 
marked to  a  medical  gentleman  who  was  the  subject 
of  the  experiment  that  sometimes  the  effects  did  not 
disappear  for  as  much  as  two  hours.  Upon  meeting 
him  a  few  days  later  he  informed  me  that  some  two 
hours  after  the  experiment  he  found  himself  actually 
rubbing  the  palm  of  the  hand  that  had  been  experi- 
mented upon. 

In  respect  to  this  and  all  the  other  experiments 
about  to  be  referred  to  we  approach  ground  that  may 
become  dangerous  to  some  persons.  It  is  already 
evident  that  suggestion  is  an  instrument  of  great 
and  subtle  power,  and  not  one  to  be  handled  unwa- 
rily. In  a  subsequent  section  these  dangers  and  the 
needful  precautions  will  receive  specific  discussion. 

The  fact  brought  out  in  the  experiment  just  de- 
scribed was  known  more  than  a  century  ago  by  a  cel- 
ebrated lecturer  on  surgery  by  the  name  of  Hunter. 
"I  am  confident,"  he  said,  "that  I  can  fix  my  atten- 

Ition  to  any  part  until  I  have  a  sensation  in  that 
part."1  Johannes  Muller,  a  great  physiologist  of  the 
second  quarter  of  this  century,  said  nearly  the  same 
thing  in  another  way.  "It  may  be  stated  as  a  general 
fact,"  he  observes,  "that  any  state  of  the  body  which 
is  conceived  to  be  approaching,  and  which  is  ex- 
pected with  certain  confidence  and  certainty  of  its 

1  Quoted  by  Tuke,  356 
162 


DIVINE  HEALING 

occurrence,  will  be  very  prone  to  ensue,  as  the  mere 
result  of  the  idea,  if  it  do  not  lie  beyond  the  bounds 
of  possibility."1  Strange  that  these  really  startling 
propositions  from  high  medical  authority  did  not 
force  the  medical  profession  to  see  that  a  new  cura- 
tive law  lay  ready  for  discovery. 

It  is  easy  enough  to  verify  to  some  extent  what 
Hunter  and  Miiller  claimed.  Almost  anyone  with  a 
trained  mind  who  will  persevere  in  the  experiment 
will  be  able  to  do  all  that  Hunter  described.  I  have 
practiced  upon  myself,  as  far  as  was  consistent  with 
the  avoidance  of  all  danger  of  harmful  interference 
with  the  natural  functions,  with  unqualified  success. 
In  the  parts  of  the  body  that  have  received  the  most 
training  in  this  direction  a  suggestion  of  warmth,  of 
tingling,  or  of  pain  receives  most  ready  response. 
In  the  hands,  arms,  and  lower  extremities  I  can  pro- 
duce a  distinct  sensation  almost  instantly. 

We  shall  presently  see  that  the  production  of  pain 
by  suggestion  is  probably  more  easy  than  the  re- 
moval of  it.  But  that  various  aches  and  pains  can  be 
thus  banished  is  also  easy  of  experimental  demonstra- 
tion. Tuke  relates  an  amusing  instance  of  his  own 
experimentation.  He  was  about  to  have  a  tooth  ex- 
tracted under  the  influence  of  laughing  gas  when, 
through  an  accident  to  the  apparatus,  it  became  im- 
possible to  administer  the  gas.  "The  extraction  was 
therefore  performed  without  it,"  says  Tuke,  "but  the 

»Tuke   36f. 
163 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

operation  was  rendered  almost  painless  by  the  writer 
vividly  imagining  pleasant  ideas,  and  mentally  re- 
peating to  himself,  'How  delightful!  how  delight- 
ful !'  "-1  I  have  myself  repeated  this  experiment,  or 
what  amounts  to  substantially  the  same  thing,  dur- 
ing the  filling  of  sensitive  teeth,  and  with  the  same 
results.  A  pupil  of  mine  has  succeeded  in  going 
through  a  similar  operation  entirely  without  pain. 

Relation  of  Mental  Healing  to  Hypnotism. 

The  point  at  which  our  discussion  has  arrived 
gives  us  an  outlook  upon  a  number  of  intensely  inter- 
esting and  highly  important  problems.  As  yet,  it 
will  be  noticed,  only  the  most  rudimentary  applica- 
tions of  the  law  of  suggestion  have  been  touched 
upon.  We  must  ultimately  go  on  to  inquire  into  the 
modes  and  extent  of  its  application  as  a  therapeutic 
agent,  and  into  its  bearing  upon  divine  healing  and 
similar  phenomena.  At  present  let  us  consider  brief- 
ly its  relation  to  hypnotism.  Thus  far  the  discus- 
sion has  purposely  avoided  mentioning  this  topic, 
because  what  needs  to  be  made  plain  at  the  outset  is 
the  essential  identity  in  principle  between  mental 
healing  and  many  of  our  most  commonplace  experi- 
ences. There  is,  in  fact,  nothing  occult  or  even  rare 
in  the  fundamental  law  involved.  Even  if  we  knew 
nothing  about  hypnotism  we  should  still  have  enough 
accessible  facts  to  warrant  a  safe  induction  as  to  how 

»  P.  58. 


DIVINE  HEALING 

mental  healing  and  similar  processes  succeed.  Never- 
theless, it  is  undeniable  that  the  study  of  hypnotism 
has  been  the  chief  source  of  our  scientific  knowledge 
on  this  point. 

It  is  essential  that  we  make  clear  to  ourselves  that, 
while  suggestion  and  hypnosis  are  not  the  same,  the^ 
law  of  suggestion  is,  as  far  as  science  can  now  see, 
the  fundamental  psychological  law  employed  in  all/ 
hypnotic  processes.  The  actions  of  a  hypnotized  per- 
son, then,  are  to  be  understood  psychologically  by 
reference  to  the  very  same  law  which  we  found  ex- 
emplified in  the  watering  of  the  mouth  when  one 
thinks  of  food.  There  is  enough  of  mystery  about 
even  this  latter  event,  but  the  mystery  is  not  different 
from  that  which  surrounds  the  whole  subject  of  the 
hypnotic  trance.  The  superstitious  fear  with  which 
many  persons  look  upon  this  state  is  no  more  rea- 
sonable than  would  be  a  similar  dread  of  electric 
lights  and  electric  cars.  One  is  no  more  uncanny 
than  the  other,  for  both  follow  definite  laws  which, 
in  spite  of  some  remaining  mystery,  have  been  made 
out  with  sufficient  fullness  to  give  us  control  of  the 
facts.  It  is,  to  be  sure,  dangerous  to  trifle  with  either 
hypnotism  or  electricity.  Neither  should  be  handled  I 
except  by  persons  specially  trained  and  instructed/ 
therefor.  Nevertheless,  in  the  case  of  both  hypno- 
tism and  electricity,  we  carry  the  explanation  back 
to  the  most  commonplace  events  of  our  everyday  life. 

Since  the  state  of  hypnosis  involves  merely  one 
165 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

specific  application  of  the  law  of  suggestion,  it  would 
be  an  error  to  say  that  all  mental  healing  is  by  means 
of  hypnotism.  When  Christian  Scientists  and  faith 
healers  deny  that  their  cures  are  wrought  by  hypno- 
tism they  do  not  deny  that  such  cures  are  wrought 
by  suggestion.  Suggestion  is,  indeed,  an  omnipres- 
ent and  all-pervasive  agency,  most  subtle  in  its  ways 
of  working,  and  productive  of  effects  of  many  dif- 
ferent grades.  Its  ill  effects  range  from  the  mere 
uneasiness  occasioned  by  a  thought  of  possible  harm 
to,  perhaps,  death  itself.  Its  good  effects,  on  the  other 
hand,  reach  all  the  way  from  the  physical  benefit 
of  a  momentary  hope  to  restoration  to  health  from 
some  most  distressing  complaints. 

For  our  present  purpose  the  essential  fact  about 
the  hypnotic  state  is  that  it  involves  what  we  may 
call  a  focusing  of  suggestion.  The  operator  secures 
control  of  his  subject  largely  by  an  artificial  reduc- 
tion in  the  number  and  insistence  of  competing  ideas. 
This  principle  may  be  illustrated  without  resorting 
to  hypnosis  at  all.  Thus,  every  rider  of  a  bicycle 
knows  how  hard  it  is,  when  one  is  learning  to  ride, 
to  steer  clear  of  obstacles,  even  under  the  most  favor- 
able circumstances.  This  remains  true,  also,  for 
some  time  after  one  has  learned  to  balance  and  guide 
one's  machine.  Something  apart  from  one's  self 
seems  to  take  possession  of  the  muscles  or  of  the 
wheel.  The  explanation  is  that  the  thought  of  run- 
ning into  the  post  or  the  stone  that  one  sees  ahead 

166 


DIVINE  HEALING 

is  so  vividly  present  to  the  mind  as  to  control  the 
muscles  even  against  the  will.  The  experienced  rider 
avoids  such  obstacles  not  by  thinking  about  them 
more  intensely,  but  just  the  reverse — by  scarcely 
thinking  about  them  at  all.  Now,  I  have  discovered 
in  myself,  and  confirmed  the  discovery  by  question- 
ing scores  of  riders,  that  it  is  easier  to  ride  through 
some  difficult  places  in  the  dark  than  it  is  by  day- 
light. One  rider,  traversing  a  certain  road  for  the 
first  time  by  night,  rode  through  a  long,  very  nar- 
row, and  dangerous  path  unconscious  of  peril — a 
path  which  he  says  he  could  not  use  again  after  day- 
light revealed  its  true  nature.  Again,  sandy  patches 
of  road  which  compel  a  rider  to  dismount  during 
daylight  have  been  passed  over  without  serious  em- 
barrassment in  the  dark.  In  this  case  the  difficulty 
was  known,  but,  being  less  obvious  to  the  senses,  it 
had  less  paralyzing  effect  upon  the  muscles ;  in  other 
words,  the  competition  of  ideas  was  reduced,  and  so 
the  idea  of  going  ahead  was  able  to  have  more  than 
usual  effect.  Thus  we  see  how  much  more  there  is 
in  even  our  everyday  actions  than  deliberate  volition. 
This  is  the  principle  of  which  the  hypnotist  takes 
advantage.  He  narrows  the  attention  of  the  sub- 1 
ject  to  one  or  a  few  ideas,  and  thus  secures  a  maxi-l 
mum  effect  from  them.  It  is,  furthermore,  a  law  of 
the  mind  that  any  image  that  secures  exclusive  pos- 
session of  the  mind  is  regarded  as  a  reality.  This 

is  one  reason  why  our  dreams  are  so  real  to  us  whil< 

167 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

they  last;  they  have  few  competitors  or  none.  Just 
so,  a  hypnotic  subject  may  be  made  to  feel  cold  or 
hot  by  being  told  that  he  does  feel  so ;  he  may  seem 
to  himself  actually  to  hear,  see,  touch,  what  he  is  told 
is  thus  present  to  his  senses.  Let  the  operator  tell 
him  that  he  has  a  headache,  and  a  real  ache  sets  in ; 
and  when  the  operator  declares  that  the  ache  is  gone, 
behold !  so  it  is. 

If,  now,  as  we  have  abundantly  illustrated,  the 
thought  of  any  bodily  function  tends  to  produce  that 
function,  what  may  we  not  expect  when  the  atten- 
tion, as  in  the  hypnotic  state  (at  least  the  deeper 
states),  becomes  wholly  concentrated  upon  a  single 
function  or  group  of  allied  functions?  Many  ap- 
parently magical  or  miraculous  results  have  thus 
been  attained.  Needles  have  been  run  into  the  flesh 
without  hurting;  surgical  operations  have  been  per- 
formed without  the  knowledge  of  the  patient; 
wounds  have  been  healed  with  almost  incredible 
rapidity,  and  childbirth  has  been  rendered  practi- 
cally painless.  These  extreme  cases  are,  of  course, 
rare,  for  suggestibility  has  many  degrees  in  different 
persons.  But  the  occurrence  of  these  and  many  other 
marvels  is  thoroughly  authenticated. 

Results  of  the  same  general  nature,  though  less 
in  degree  and  narrower  in  range,  can  be  wrought 
upon  anyone  who  can  be  hypnotized,  and  generally 
in  proportion  to  the  depth  of  the  hypnosis  in  other 

respects.    Probably  ninety  per  cent  of  the  population, 

168 


DIVINE  HEALING 

exclusive  of  infants,  imbeciles,  and  the  insane,  can, 
under  favorable  conditions,  be  hypnotized.  Further- 
more, many  of  the  effects  of  hypnotic  medical  treat-l 
ment  can  also  be  produced  entirely  without  hypno-7 
tization.  A  striking  example  of  this  will  be  citeja 
farther  on.  Bernheim,  indeed,  has  succeeded  in  pro- 
ducing practically  all  the  simple  characteristic  effects 
of  hypnosis,  one  by  one,  without  hypnotizing  at  all.1 
One  may  practice  hypnotic  suggestion  upon  one's 
self.  Tuckey  says:  "Liebeault  [from  whom  Bern- 
heim derived  his  method  of  hypnotizing]  tells  me 
that  he  is  able  to  cure  himself  of  slight  maladies — 
such  as  facial  neuralgia — by  auto-hypnotism  and 
auto-suggestion.  He  sends  himself  to  sleep  by  fix- 
ing his  gaze  upon  some  prominent  object,  such  as  a 
door  handle,  and  his  mind  on  the  disappearance  of 
the  malady,  and  he  drops  off  into  a  doze,  out  of 
which  he  awakes  cured."2  This  is  a  perfectly  simple 
and  easy  process  for  persons  who  have  trained  their 
minds  to  this  kind  of  concentration.  Perhaps  at  this 
place  it  ought  to  be  remarked  that  the  experience  of' 
myself  and  my  pupil  in  the  dentist's  chair,  which' 
was  referred  to  a  little  way  back,  included  a  definite 
process  of  self -hypnotizing. 

A  Word  of  Warning. 

It  is  now  high  time  to  remind  ourselves  that  what 
is  harmless  or  even  beneficial  when  properly  handled 

1  Suggestive  Therapeutics.  2  Psycho-  Therapeutics  ^  17. 

169 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

may  become  deleterious  in  the  absence  of  knowledge 
and  skill.  Since  suggestion  is  all-pervasive  in  our 
lives  it  is  proper  that  the  public  should  understand 
its  principles  and  how  to  take  advantage  of  them. 
But  this  is  not  the  same  as  advising  indiscriminate 
experimentation.  Indeed,  the  very  fact  that  idea 
and  function  are  so  intimately  and  complexly  inter- 
woven should  teach  us  that,  except  within  the  sphere 
of  the  commonplace,  the  practical  handling  of  sug-  | 
gestion  should  be  left  to  experts. 

This  general  consideration  is  supplemented  by 
several  specific  facts.  The  first  is  that,  while  the 
organism  is  easily  thrown  out  of  order  by  suggestion,  i 
it  is  not  so  easily  restored  to  its  normal  condition. 
The  reason  is  that  a  sensation  produced  by  sugges- 
tion, particularly  if  it  is  a  painful  one,  acts  as  an 
added  and  independent  suggestion,  and  so  tends  to 
counteract  those  of  a  contrary  sort.  *Pain  tends  to 
keep  itself  going,  that  is,  by  merely  calling  our  at- 
tention to  itself.  In  addition,  the  remnant  of  super- 
stition almost  always  lurking  in  the  mind  makes 
amateur  experimenters  peculiarly  easy  victims  of 
fear  whenever  anything  goes  wrong.  It  would  be 
easy,  for  example,  to  get  into  trouble  over  so  simple 
an  experiment  as  that  of  gazing  at  the  palm  of  the 
hand  in  order  to  produce  a  sensation;  for  various 
pains  or  numbness  might  result  which  would  be  suf- 
ficiently obstinate  to  give  genuine  discomfort  and  to 

defeat  for  an  indefinite  time  all  efforts  to  remove 

170 


DIVINE  HEALING 

them.  The  positive  danger  of  performing  any.  simi- 
lar  amateur  experiments  upon  the  vital  organs  is 
obvious  enough. 

Again,  it  must  never  be  forgotten  that  an  indis- 
pensable part  of  every  safe  method  of  treating  dis-  J 
ease  is  competent  diagnosis.  No  one  is  competent, 
in  general,  to  practice  any  healing  art  who  is  not 
prepared  to  understand  the  nature  of  the  complaints 
for  which  he  prescribes.  This  is  so  nearly  self-evi- 
dent with  respect  to  the  more  serious  complaints 
which  are  usually  committed  to  the  care  of  physi- 
cians as  to  need  no  discussion.  But  even  what  seem 
to  be  insignificant  complaints  may,  in  reality,  be 
symptoms  of  some  serious  disorder.  A  physician 
points  out  that  so  slight  a  symptom  as  a  headache 
may  be  a  warning  of  something  that  calls  for  the 
highest  medical  skill,  so  that  to  attempt  to  stop  it  by 
suggestion,  or  even  to  succeed  in  doing  so,  may  give 
the  larger  opportunity  for  the  progress  of  the  dis- 
ease.1 

Furthermore,  as  will  appear  more  fully  later  on, 
the  medical  profession,  and  particularly  the  special- 
ists in  nervous  diseases,  are  fast  adopting  and  put-'T 
ting  into  skillful  practice  the  principle  of  suggestion. 
Their  long  study,  their  slowly  acquired  skill,  are  at 
the  service  of  any  patient  who  needs  that  kind  of 
treatment.  And  who  except  a  scientifically  trained 

1  A.  H.  Burr,  "Why  Suggestive  Therapeutics  Should  Not  Be  Taught  to  the 
Laity,"  in  Suggestive  Therapeutics  (Mag.),  November,  1898. 

171 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

physician  should  be  trusted  to  decide  what  kind  of 
treatment  each  difficulty  calls  for?  In  a  word,  sug- 
gestive therapeutics  is  on  the  same  plane  as  any  other 
medical  discovery.  Properly  employed,  it  is  of  in- 
estimable service,  but  in  the  hands  of  ignorance  it 
may  produce  the  most  harmful  consequences. 

What,  then,  is  left  to  the  discretion  of  those  un- 
trained in  medical  science?  For  it  is  plain  that  we 
cannot  avoid  employing  suggestion  to  our  weal  or 
to  our  woe  every  day  that  we  live.  A  few  applica- 
tions of  its  principles  are  perfectly  feasible.  For  ex- 
ample, we  can  deliberately  cultivate  cheerful  states 
of  feeling,  and  we  can  assist  others  to  be  happy.  If  all 
the  world  should  adopt  such  a  course  of  living,  the 
occupation  of  the  doctors  would  be  cut  in  two  inside 
of  ten  years.  Again,  just  as  any  intelligent  layman 
is  competent  to  make  a  proper  use  of  some  of  the 
commoner  drugs,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  case  of 
minor  cuts,  burns,  and  bruises,  so,  it  may  be  con- 
tended, specific  suggestion  for  specific  ailments  may 
be  allowed  when  the  nature  of  the  ailment  is  under- 
stood. To  take  the  simplest  case,  what  possible  ob- 
jection could  there  be  to  one's  overcoming  an  attack 
of  sleeplessness  by  suggestion?  Again,  if  one  has 
certain  knowledge  that  a  given  headache  has  been 
induced  by  temporary  and  trivial  causes,  no  harm 
could  easily  result  from  treating  it  after  the  manner 
of  Liebeault.  In  general,  too,  the  pains  we  have  to 

bear,  even  under  the  care  of  the  highest  medical 

172 


DIVINE  MEALING 

skill,  can  often  be  lessened  by  a  proper  direction  of 
the  attention.  Here  belong  the  chronic  difficulties 
that  have  been  already  diagnosed  and  treated  by  the 
family  physician.  In  short,  just  as  wise  dieting, 
proper  clothing,  and  much  more  has  to  be  attended 
to  by  ourselves,  so  there  is  a  general  and  very  neces- 
sary household  use  of  suggestion  as  an  adjunct  of 
ordinary  medical  practice. 

Misleading  Sensations. 

Let  us  now  return  to  the  main  highway  of  our 
discussion.  We  have  endeavored  to  disentangle  and 
bring  to  clear  view  the  great  law  of  mental  sugges- 
tion, exhibiting  it  both  as  an  omnipresent  fact  in  all 
our  waking  hours,  and  as  a  specialized  fact  in  hypno- 
tism. We  have  seen  that  it  is  sufficient  to  account 
for  a  great  deal  in  the  way  of  bodily  healing.  It  is 
now  necessary  to  remark  that  what  seems  to  be  heal- 
ing is  often  no  such  thing  at  all,  and  that,  further- 
more, the  visions  and  other  apparently  objective 
experiences  that  sometimes  accompany  divine  heal- 
ing have  their  explanation  also  in  the  law  of  sug- 
gestion. 

We  have  seen  how  suggestion  produces  hallucinar- 
tions  in  hypnotized  persons,  but  we  do  not  need  tp 
resort  to  hypnotism  in  order  to  witness  these  phe- 
nomena. For,  just  as  the  idea  of  a  motion  tends  to 
bring  that  motion  to  pass,  so  the  idea  of  a  sensation 
tends  to  produce  the  sensation  itself.  For  example, 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

something  makes  us  guess  that  the  room  is  too  warm 
or  not  warm  enough,  and  presently  we  are  perspiring 
with  the  heat  or  shivering  with  the  cold,  while  all 
the  time  the  temperature  is  normal.  We  are  liable 
to  taste  in  our  food  what  we  expect  to  taste;  and 
sometimes  an  unpleasant  taste  that  is  too  weak  to  be 
noticed  of  itself  becomes  unbearably  strong  as  soon 
as  our  attention  is  called  to  it.  When  anyone  points 
his  fingers  at  your  ribs,  do  you  not  have  the  very 
sensation  of  being  tickled?  How  easy  is  it,  when 
one  is  alone  in  a  building  at  night,  to  hear  whatever 
one's  fears  may  suggest!  Thus  the  thought  of  a 
sensation  either  intensifies  one  already  present  or 
even  evokes  one  for  which  there  is  no  discoverable 
external  stimulus. 

The  following  story  came  directly  to  me  from  one 
who  remembered  the  time  when  stoves  first  came 
into  general  use.  When  it  was  proposed  to  warm 
churches  by  this  means  considerable  opposition  was 
made  on  the  ground  that  stoves  would  render  the  air 
too  close  to  be  fit  for  breathing.  One  sister  declared 
that  she  knew  she  should  faint  away  the  first  Sunday 
her  church  was  heated  in  that  manner.  The  stove 
went  in,  however,  and,  sure  enough,  on  the  first 
Sunday  thereafter,  the  good  sister  was  carried  out 
of  meeting  in  a  faint.  But,  on  that  day,  the  stove 
and  its  connections  not  having  been  completed,  the 
church  was  as  fireless  as  it  ever  had  been. 

How  far,  indeed,  sensation  can  be  controlled  by 
174 


DIVINE  HEALING 

suggestion  would  hardly  be  guessed  by  anyone  not 
already  familiar  with  the  experimental  production 
of  illusions  and  hallucinations.  In  the  psychological 
laboratories  it  is  found  necessary  to  guard  with  the 
utmost  diligence  against  the  influence  of  suggestion 
upon  observations  and  measurements  of  sensation. 
Experiments  have  also  been  devised  to  show  how 
even  our  commonest  estimates  of  size,  weight,  direc- 
tion, etc.,  are  fairly  infested  with  inaccuracies  aris-r 
ing  from  this  source.  Furthermore,  it  is  possible 
not  merely  to  over  or  under  estimate  or  misinterpret, 
but  also  to  manufacture  a  whole  new  sensation.  By 
persisting  in  the  right  sort  of  training,  one  can  bring 
one's  self  to  the  point  of  seeing  what  is  not  there  at 
all.  There  is  no  trick  about  it,  either;  all  that  is 
necessary  is  to  fix  and  concentrate  the  attention  upon 
the  idea  of  the  desired  sensation.  For  several  years 
it  has  been  my  custom  to  illustrate  this  law  of  hallu- 
cination before  my  class  in  psychology  by  actually 
producing  hallucinations  in  its  members.  Without 
my  attempting  any  deception  or  concealment  what- 
ever, as  high  as  twenty-five  per  cent  of  a  large 
class  has  been  made  to  see  objects  not  present  in 
the  room  at  the  time.  Hypnosis  was  not  at  all  re- 
sorted to,  nor  was  there  any  failure  to  discrimi- 
nate between  a  mere  memory  image  and  an  actual 
sensation. 

Under  this  principle  it  comes  about  again  and 
again  that  the  patient  of  Christian  Science  or  of 

i75 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

faith-healing  practice,  or  of  allied  modes  of  treat- 
ment, imagines  himself  to  be  cured  when  nothing  of 
the  sort  has  happened.  I  have  seen  a  faith  healer 
work  up  great  enthusiasm  in  cripples  and  persons 
partly  blind  by  insistently  suggesting  that  they  were 
better.  Glasses,  ankle  braces,  and  crutches  aban- 
doned— this  proves  nothing  definite.  We  need  to 
know  how  often — and  it  is  not  seldom — these  helps 
have  to  be  resumed.  Furthermore,  we  must  take 
into  account  the  fact  that  the  way  is  not  open  for  a 
public  avowal  of  failure  to  heal  as  it  is  for  such 
avowal  of  success.  Indeed,  even  if  the  managers 
were  willing  to  present  any  trustworthy  statistics, 
the  victims  would  be  restrained  from  testifying  by 
their  pride,  their  mortification,  or  even  by  their  hope 
that  they  may  yet  be  cured  in  spite  of  a  first  failure. 
Thus,  not  only  is  the  law  of  suggestion  sufficient 
to  account  for  much  at  least  of  the  success  of  the 
modes  of  healing  here  under  consideration,  but  it 
is  likewise  fitted  to  be  a  source  of  exaggerated  and 
in  the  end  utterly  misleading  accounts  of  what  actu- 
ally takes  place.  This,  then,  is  the  present  net  result 
of  our  discussion :  We  have  the  positive  scientific 
clew  to  some  and  perhaps  all  the  kinds  of  healing  in- 
cluded under  the  terms  mind  cure,  Christian  Science, 
faith  cure,  etc. ;  and  we  find  ourselves  under  peculiar 
obligations  toward  the  evidence  that  is  offered  for 
such  cures.  What  is  now  required  is  to  define  the 

known  or  probable  limits  of  suggestive  therapeutics, 

176 


DIVINE  HEALING 

and  then  ask  whether  all  that  is  verifiable  in  the  prac- 
tices just  referred  to  can  be  included  within  those 
limits. 

As  to  the  visions  that  frequently  accompany  the 
healing  work  of  faith,  of  shrines,  etc.,  enough  has 
been  said  to  show  how,  under  perfectly  natural  prin- 
ciples, they  might  occur  to  many  a  suppliant.  All 
that  is  previously  required  is  a  considerable  degree 
of  suggestibility,  a  stock  of  active  images  of  the 
saints,  the  Virgin,  Christ,  etc.,  emotional  pressure, 
and  intense  concentration  of  attention  for  a  consid- 
erable time  upon  divine  things. 

Limits  of  Mental  Healing. 

Medical  men  are  pretty  generally  agreed  that  sug-| 
gestion  reaches  directly  none  but  functional  disturbs 
ances ;  that  is,  disorders  in  which  the  organ  remains 
intact  but  shows  excessive,  defective,  or  otherwise 
irregular  activity.  For  example,  ordinary  consti- 
pation, biliousness,  and  indigestion  are  functional  as 
contrasted  with  acute  diseases  like  typhoid  fever, 
and  organic  diseases,  in  which  the  organ  is  wholly 
or  partly  destroyed,  as  tuberculosis,  cancer  of  the 
stomach,  etc.  Suggestion  does  not  replace  an  arm 
shot  off  in  battle;  it  does  not  set  broken  bones  or  re- 
duce dislocations;  it  does  not  dislodge  a  cancerous 
growth  and  replace  it  with  healthy  tissue ;  it  has  no 
way  of  reaching  a  brain  once  in  the  grip  of  progress- 
ive senile  dementia ;  it  knows  not  how  to  kill  or  ex- 

177 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

pel  from  the  system  the  bacilli  which  cause  so  large 
a  proportion  of  diseases;  nor  can  it  claim  to  be  an 
antidote  to  any  active  poison.  I  am  speaking  here, 
let  it  be  noticed,  of  the  prevailing  medical  view  of 
suggestion.  Various  systems  opposed  to  medica- 
tion deny  that  their  methods  are  thus  limited. 
Whether  this  claim  is  just  or  no  will  be  a  question 
for  future  inquiry. 

But,  while  medical  men  assert  that  suggestion, 
reaches  directly  none  but  functional  difficulties,  they 
do  not  fail  to  see  that,  even  so,  it  may  have  an  im- 
portant indirect  influence  upon  all  classes  of  cases] 
whatever ;  for  heightening  or  depressing  the  various 
functions  of  nutrition,  secretion,  etc.,  determines  foi| 
good  or  ill  the  general  basis  upon  which  all  medica- 
tion and  even  surgery  must  rely.  Or,  to  take  the 
very  simplest  case,  if  suggestion  can  assist  a  patient 
to  secure  needed  sleep,  it  thereby  contributes  a  not 
unimportant  factor  toward  recovery.  It  is  there- 
fore not  at  all  impossible  that  suggestion,  through 
its  indirect  connection  with  organic  disease,  should 
now  and  then  be  the  decisive  therapeutic  agent ;  that 
is,  that  with  which  the  patient  recovers,  without 
which  he  does  not.  Suppose,  for  example,  that  a 
tuberculous  patient  is  led  to  have  complete  faith  that 
the  Lord  is  going  to  heal  him,  or  does  now  heal  him. 
One  natural  consequence  would  be  a  general  toning 
up  of  the  system  due  to  the  new  state  of  cheerful- 
ness. This  of  itself  would  be  something.  But  an- 

178 


DIVINE  HEALING 

other  consequence  would  be  that  the  patient  would 
begin  to  act  as  though  he  were  well ;  he  would  take 
exercise,  thus  bringing  the  uninjured  parts  of  the 
lungs  into  action  and  improving  the  quality  and  the 
circulation  of  the  blood.  Now,  it  has  happened 
again  and  again  that  a  tuberculous  lung  has  healed 
over  through  just  such  hygienic  means  as  these. 
The  destroyed  part  has  not  been  restored,  by  any 
means,  but  absorbed  and  dried  up.  A  determined 
will  that  sets  one  to  mountain  climbing  or  to  sawing 
wood  has  done  this,  and  there  appears  no  reason 
why  suggestion  should  not  have  the  same  effects. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that 
many  a  patient  has  died  for  the  want  of  a  proper 
mental  attitude  toward  his  disease. 

Two  facts,  then,  are  established — that  suggestion 
is  a  specific  remedial  agent  in  at  least  some  func- 
tional disorders,  and  a  general  adjunct  in  all  classes 
of  medical  and  even  surgical  cases.  When  it  should 
be  exclusively  employed;  when  it  should  be  em- 
ployed in  connection  with  other  treatment;  how  it 
should  be  employed  in  each  case,  whether  through 
hypnosis  or  without  hypnosis;  what  devices  should 
be  employed  in  each  case  to  make  the  suggestion  con- 
tinuous and  emphatic — these  and  all  the  other  ques- 
tions that  concern  the  practical  application  of  what 
has  just  been  said  must  be  left  for  answer  to  special 
medical  literature  and  the  personal  skill  of  prac- 
titioners. 

179 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

Two  Misapprehensions. 

From  its  very  nature,  of  course,  suggestion  has  its   / 
most  pronounced  effects  upon  disordered  nervous  j 
functions.     It  is  in  constant  employment  in  hospi- 
tals for  diseased  minds,  and  in  the  general  duties  of 
the  skilled  nurse  everywhere.     It  is  also  recognized 
as   one  of  the  chief   agencies  at  the  disposal   of/ 
the  specialist  in  functional  diseases  of  the  nervousj 
system.      The   large   group   of   troubles    allied    to 
hysteria,  the  group  of  inebrieties  (alcohol,  opium, 
cocaine,   tobacco,   etc.),   various  difficulties  of  the 
sexual  organism,  and  much  more — these  are  a  par- 
ticularly favorable  sphere  for  the  employment  of 
suggestion. 

This  recognized  relation  of  suggestion  to  nervous 
disorders  has  produced  a  popular  impression  that 
the  troubles  reached  by  mental  treatment  are  im- 
aginary ones;  that,  for  instance,  if  anyone  seems  to 
have  been  cured  of  rheumatism  in  this  way,  it  was 
not  real  rheumatism  that  he  had,  and,  indeed,  that 
nothing  was  really  the  matter  with  him.  But  this 
is  certainly  an  error.  For,  in  the  first  place,  pain 
hurts  just  the  same  whether  its  cause  is  a  disturbed 
function  of  the  mind  and  brain  or  the  actual  loss  of 
some  part  of  the  bodily  tissue.  A  headache  brought 
on  by  grief  or  anxiety,  or  a  diarrhoea  caused  by  men- 
tal excitement,  or  indigestion  resulting  from  nerv- 
ous strain — all  these  are  real  enough ;  and  even  pain 

brought  on  simply  by  imagining  pain  is  as  genuine 

180 


DIVINE  HEALING 

as  any  while  it  lasts.  Again,  it  should  be  remem- 
bered that  the  nervous  system  participates  in  all  the 
functions  of  all  the  organs.  It  is,  as  it  were,  the 
central  telephone  station,  without  which  no  sub- 
scriber can  use  even  his  own  transmitter  and  re- 
ceiver. Now,  granting  that  suggestion  has  its 
direct  effect  upon  the  nervous  system,  we  do  not 
therefore  shut  up  its  efficacy  to  any  one  class  of 
functions.  Much  less  do  we  give  it  simply  the  task  I 
of  removing  diseases  that  are- not  there. 

Another  misapprehension  is  that  suggestion  is 
effective  only  with  persons  of  weak  or  loosely  organ- 
ized mind.  This  prejudice  totally  misconceives  the 
facts;  for  suggestibility  is  common  in  health  as 
well  as  in  disease  in  persons  of  both  sexes,  and  in 
persons  of  all  grades  of  mental  power  except  the 
lowest.  As  before  remarked,  probably  ninety  per 
cent  of  the  population,  exclusive  of  infants,  imbe- 
ciles, and  the  insane,  can  be  hypnotized,  under  fav- 
orable conditions.  Of  course,  some  persons  are  far 
more  susceptible  than  others,  just  as  there  are  vari- 
ous degrees  of  response  to  all  influences  in  nature. 
But  that  suggestibility  does  not  connote  mental 
weakness  may  be  surmised  from  the  fact  that  Sir 
Isaac  Newton  was  highly  suggestible. 

The  proof  of  this  fact  is  contained  in  a  letter  of  his 
written  to  John  Locke,  and  dated  June  30,  1691. 
In  this  letter  Newton  relates  the  following  surpris- 
ing experience  that  came  to  him  in  connection  with 

181 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

some  experiments  on  after-images  of  the  sun:  "At 
the  third  time,  when  the  phantasm  of  light  and 
colors  about  it  were  almost  vanished  [that  is,  when 
an  after-image  of  the  sun  had  almost  vanished] ,  in- 
tending my  fancy  upon  them  to  see  their  last  appear- 
ance, I  found,  to  my  amazement,  that  they  began  to 
return,  and  by  little  and  little  to  become  as  lively  and 
vivid  as  when  I  had  newly  looked  upon  the  sun. 
But  when  I  ceased  to  intend  my  fancy  upon  them, 
they  vanished  again.  After  this,  I  found  that,  as 
often  as  I  went  into  the  dark,  and  intended  my  mind 
upon  them,  as  when  a  man  looks  earnestly  to  see 
anything  which  is  difficult  to  be  seen,  I  could  make 
the  phantasm  return  without  looking  any  more  upon 
the  sun;  and  the  oftener  I  made  it  return,  the  more 
easily  I  could  make  it  return  again.  And  at  length, 
by  repeating  this  without  looking  any  more  upon 
the  sun,  I  made  such  an  impression  upon  my  eye 
[rather,  on  his  mind]  that,  if  I  looked  upon  the 
clouds,  or  a  book,  or  any  bright  object,  I  saw  upon 
it  a  round  bright  spot  of  light  like  the  sun,  and, 
which  is  still  stranger,  though  I  looked  upon  the  sun 
with  my  right  eye  only,  and  not  with  my  left,  yet 
my  fancy  began  to  make  an  impression  upon  my  left 
eye,  as  well  as  upon  my  right.  For  if  I  shut  my 
right  eye,  or  looked  upon  a  book  or  the  clouds  with 
my  left  eye,  I  could  see  the  spectrum  of  the  sun  al- 
most as  plain  as  with  my  right  eye,  if  I  did  but  in- 
tend my  fancy  a  little  while  upon  it ;  for  at  first,  if  I 

182 


DIVINE  HEALING 

shut  my  right  eye,  and  looked  with  my  left,  the 
spectrum  of  the  sun  did  not  appear  till  I  intended 
my  fancy  upon  it;  but  by  repeating,  this  appeared 
every  time  more  easily.  And  now,  in  a  few  hours' 
time,  I  had  brought  my  eyes  to  such  a  pass,  that 
I  could  look  upon  no  bright  object  with  either  eye, 
but  I  saw  the  sun  before  me,  so  that  I  durst  neither 
write  nor  read;  but  to  recover  the  use  of  my  eyes, 
shut  myself  up  in  my  chamber  made  dark,  for  three 
days  together,  and  used  all  means  to  divert  my  im- 
agination from  the  sun.  For  if  I  thought  upon  him, 
I  presently  saw  his  picture,  though  I  was  in  the 
dark.  But  by  keeping  in  the  dark,  and  employing 
my  mind  about  other  things,  I  began  in  three  or 
four  days  to  have  some  use  of  my  eyes  again,  and, 
by  forbearing  to  look  upon  bright  objects,  recovered 
them  pretty  well,  though  not  so  well  but  that,  for 
some  months  after,  the  spectrum  of  the  sun  began 
to  return  as  often  as  I  began  to  meditate  upon  the 
phenomena,  even  though  I  lay  in  bed  at  midnight 
with  my  curtains  drawn.  But  now  I  have  been 
very  well  for  many  years,  though  I  am  apt  to  think, 
if  I  durst  venture  my  eyes,  I  could  still  make  the 
phantasm  return  by  the  power  of  my  fancy."  He 
closes  the  account  by  remarking  that  the  power  of 
the  fancy  is  a  knot  too  hard  for  him  to  untie.1 

Now,  that  Sir  Isaac  Newton  was  able  to  give  him- 
self this  hallucination  of  the  sun  by  merely  "intend- 

1  Sir  David  Brewster,  Memoirs,  etc.,  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton^  i,  2368. 
183 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

ing"  his  mind  upon  the  thought  of  the  sun  is  not 
only  not  an  evidence  of  intellectual  weakness,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  it  is  a  natural  consequence  of  his 
marvelous  power  of  analysis.  It  was  his  trained 
capacity  for  intense  voluntary  attention  that  gave 
his  mere  mental  idea  the  character  of  a  present  sen- 
sation. It  would  therefore  be  a  mistake  to  assume 
that  only  the  weak-minded  have  anything  to  hope 
for  in  mental  healing.  It  is  true,  of  course,  that  the 
requisite  concentration  of  attention  may  be  secured 
through  other  than  voluntary  means;  the  mind  of 
the  simple  may  be  overawed  by  a  commanding  per-' 
sonal  presence  and  voice,  or  by  fear  of  invisible  in- 
fluences near  at  hand,  or  through  a  properly  ar- 
ranged ensemble  of  exercises  reaching  their  united 
climacteric  in  all-abounding  faith.  But  a  corre- 
sponding condition  of  susceptibility  may  be  reached 
through  rational  conviction  which  justifies  similar 
concentration  of  the  mind — which  is  also  the  sub- 
mission of  the  mind — upon  the  health-giving  idea. 

The  Scientific  Aspects  of  Faith  Cure. 

Under  the  term  faith  cure  is  here  included  not 
only  what  commonly  goes  under  that  name,  but  also 
the  cures  wrought  at  the  shrines  of  saints,  by  relics, 
etc.  In  all  these,  it  is  clear,  the  subjective  state  of 
the  patient,  if  a  cure  is  to  be  wrought,  must  be  one 
of  intense  faith.  Now,  such  faith  is  already  just 

the  concentration  of  attention  upon  a  health-giving 

184 


DIVINE  HEALING 

idea  wherein  therapeutic  suggestion  consists;  there- 
fore, whether  or  no  there  is  in  faith  cure  anything 
more  that  the  influence  of  suggestion,  there  is  no 
denying  that  suggestion  is  actually  operative  there- 
in.    As  a  consequence,  we  are  compelled  to  ascribe  < 
to  suggestion  all  the  curfcs  of  functional  ailments j 
wrought  in  the  name  of  faith. 

In  general,  there  is  a  popular  misapprehsion  of 
the  logic  of  the  case.  As  a  general  rule,  both 
believers  and  unbelievers  in  faith  cure  assume  that 
the  only  alternatives  are  all  and  nothing;  as  though, 
if  one  case  of  faith  cure  fell  outside  the  law  of  sug- 
gestion, all  the  other  cases  did  also.  This  is  certainly 
illogical.  Principles  must  not  be  multiplied  beyond 
necessity,  and  cases  that  can  be  explained  by  refer- 
ence to  an  established  natural  law  must  be  so 
explained.  It  follows  that  the  question  whether 
anything  beyond  suggestion  is  operative  narrows 
itself  down  to  the  relatively  few  cases  in  which  sug- 
gestion is  not  clearly  seen  to  be  adequate.  There 
has  been  a  great  deal  of  hunting  for  cases  of  organic 
disease  cured  by  faith,  and  what  has  seemed  to  be 
game  has  been  started  repeatedly,  but  the  amount 
actually  bagged  is — one  does  not  like  to  make  a 
categorical  denial  of  what  depends  upon  the  com- 
petence of  others'  observation,  but  it  is  safe  to  say 
at  least  this:  that  the  defenders  of  faith  cure  have 
collected  their  test  cases  by  methods  that  lack  scien- 
tific precision,  and  that  supposed  proofs  have  been 

185 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

so  uniformly  exploded  whenever  trained  physicians 
have  examined  them  that  the  medical  profession  of 
to-day  is  entirely  justified  in  ignoring  the  new  an- 
nouncements of  miraculous  cures  made  from  time 
to  time. 

A  favorite  method  of 'proving  a  miracle  is  to 
adduce  evidence  that  competent  physicians  diag- 
nosed a  disease  as  organic,  and  then  that  it  was  re- 
moved by  prayer.  Obviously,  the  value  of  this 
reasoning  depends  on  two  assumptions :  that  the  dis- 
ease is  really  gone,  and  that  the  physicians  who  pro- 
nounced it  organic  were  not  mistaken.  To  make 
good  the  former  assumption  we  ought  to  have  com- 
petent diagnosis  extending  over  a  sufficient  period 
to  make  assurance  doubly  sure;  but  to  make  good 
the  latter  we  must  give  to  physicians'  opinions  a 
degree  of  authority  which  they  do  not  claim  for 
themselves.  The  task  of  determining  whether  a 
given  ailment  is  functional  or  organic  is  often  ex- 
tremely difficult,  so  difficult,  in  fact,  that  any  candid 
physician  admits  his  liability  to  error  and  is  ready 
to  correct  and  supplement  his  diagnosis  by  observ- 
ing the  course  of  the  disease  itself.  Even  if,  in  a 
given  case,  one  or  more  physicians  should  be  very 
positive,  how  should  we  determine  in  the  end 
whether  they  were  right  or  not?  Suppose  they 
themselves  admitted  that  a  miracle  had  been 
wrought;  would  even  that  sufficiently  justify  the 

assumption  in  question?     A  consideration  of  such 

186 


DIVINE  HEALING 

points  ought  to  bring  us  speedily  back  to  the  recog- 
nized criterion  of  scientific  truth,  namely,  the 
general  consensus  of  competent  investigators  in  the 
given  field.  If,  in  addition  to  all  this  difficulty  with 
the  evidence,  we  take  into  consideration  the  fact, 
already  admitted,  that  suggestion  may  be  the  de- 
cisive, though  indirect,  factor  in  curing  even  some 
organic  diseases  in  some  of  their  stages,  we  shall 
behold  the  already  narrow  margin  of  questionable 
cases  shrinking  away  toward  nothingness. 

What  keeps  alive  these  beliefs,  however,  is  the 
portion  of  truth  that  they  contain,  namely,  the  really 
marvelous  extent  and  depth  of  the  influence  of  sug- 
gestion. Without  understanding  the  process,  and 
therefore  attributing  it  to  occult  powers,  whether  of 
mind,  of  spirits,  of  Satan,  or  of  God,  men  have  always 
employed  suggestion  for  the  causing,  the  preven- 
tion, and  the  curing  of  diseases.  Bernheim  says: 
"Therapeutic  suggestion  is  not  new ;  what  is  new  is 
the  methodical  application  of  it,  and  its  final  adop- 
tion in  general  medicine,"1  Many  apparently  in- 
credible tales  are  really  worthy  of  acceptance  to  a 
certain  degree.  If  a  missing  member  is  said  to 
have  been  restored,  or  an  emaciated  person  to 
have  attained  his  normal  weight  in  an  instant, 
or  a  tuberculous  lung  to  have  been  made  whole, 
we  may  assume  either  that  the  facts  have 
been  exaggerated  and  distorted  in  the  telling  or 

1  Suggestive  Therapeutics^  197. 
I87 


THE.  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

else  that  the  diagnosis  was  incorrect  either  be- 
fore or  after  the  cure;  but  it  is  scientifically  credi- 
ble that  rheumatic  cripples  should  go  to  a  shrine  on 
crutches  and  come  away  without  them,  and  that  bed- 
ridden women  should  arise  and  walk.  On  the  same 
grounds,  too,  we  are  bound  to  accept  the  testimony 
to  similar  cures  effected  at  the  shrines  of  other  re- 
ligions than  the  Christian — before  the  feet  of  idols, 
by  means  of  charms  and  amulets,  and  much  more. 

Professional  faith  healers,  then,  may  work  many 
genuine  cures.  All  that  is  necessary  is  to  work  up 
confidence  in  one's  gifts  or  abilities,  and  this  can  be 
done  in  various  ways.  Anything  that  will  arouse 
the  right  state  of  mind  in  the  patient  will  do.  Para- 
celsus is  said  to  have  remarked  that  the  statue  of 
Peter  will  do  as  well  as  Peter  himself  provided  only 
that  the  faith  itself  is  as  strong.1  It  is  therefore 
possible  for  quacks,  impostors,  and  men  who  do  not 
understand  their  own  powers  to  perform  genuine 
cures.  I  once  knew  a  pastor  of  a  Protestant  con- 
gregation who  became  a  healer  without  intention  on 
his  part.  The  fact  seems  to  be  that  he  was  so  loved 
of  his  flock  that  his  mere  presence  in  the  sick  room 
or  the  mere  touch  of  his  hand  came  to  have  cura- 
tive powers  all  unknown  to  him. 

Understanding  these  things,  the  physicians  of  a 
certain  hospital  in  Paris  actually  send  scores  of  de- 
vout Catholics  in  the  course  of  a  year  to  the  shrine 

1  Bernheim,  102. 

188 


DIVINE  HEALING 

of  the  Virgin  at  Lourdes.  This  leads  to  the  remark 
that  Zola's  novel  Lourdes  is,  in  general,  a  correct 
description  of  the  process  of  the  mind  in  faith  cure 
and  the  like.  The  heroine  of  the  tale  injures  her 
back  in  girlhood  and  becomes  a  helpless  woman,  un- 
able so  much  as  to  turn  herself  over  in  bed.  All 
ordinary  medical  treatment  fails  to  restore  her. 
Only  one  possible  help  remains — she  will  make  a 
pilgrimage  to  the  shrine  at  Lourdes.  Possibly  the 
Virgin  will  have  pity  on  her.  Here  follows  an  ex- 
ceedingly skillful  description  of  how  hope  is  deep- 
ened to  faith,  and  how  faith  gradually  intensifies 
until  it  reaches  a  state  of  ecstasy  and  a  self-induced 
hypnotic  trance  in  which  the  suggestion  of  walking 
finally  takes  complete  effect ;  but,  from  the  inception 
to  the  climax  of  the  process,  there  is  not  one  circum- 
stance or  force  manifested  which  is  not  recognized 
and  made  use  of  by  the  medical  profession  of  to-day. 

The  Scientific  Aspects  of  Christian  Science. 

Before  proceeding  to  compare  the  medical  work 
of  Christian  Science  with  that  of  regular  physicians 
it  is  necessary,  in  the  interest  of  clear  thinking  and 
not  less  in  the  interest  of  fairness  and  neighborly 
good  will,  to  separate  the  various  questions  that 
have  been  raised  by  this  new  system  of  religious 
belief  and  practice.  There  are  probably  no  re- 
ligious movements  that  do  not  somewhere  attach 

themselves  to  the  vital  hunger  of  the  soul  for  God 
13  189 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

and  bring  to  it  some  degree  of  satisfaction.  The 
result  is  always  a  type  of  spiritual  life  and  culture 
which,  however  incomplete  it  may  be,  nevertheless 
stands  for  some  good.  This  is  the  reason  why  in- 
discriminate, wholesale  denunciation  of  even  fanat- 
ical sects  rarely  hinders  their  growth,  much  less 
extinguishes  their  influence.  In  the  case  of  Chris- 
tian Science,  no  one,  it  seems  to  me,  who  has  can- 
didly observed  the  type  of  spiritual  life  it  tends  to 
foster  can  fail  to  recognize  in  it  some  sure  marks  of 
the  spirit  of  Christ.  However  erroneous  its  creed 
may  be — and  each  Christian  creed  finds  all  the 
others  more  or  less  false — Christian  Science  may 
justly  claim,  by  virtue  of  its  ideal  of  life  and  by  vir- 
tue of  the  type  of  life  it  actually  tends  to  produce, 
that  a  place  belongs  to  it  among  the  denominations 
of  Christians.  Hence  it  is  that  tirades  of  general 
denunciation  have  thus  far  fallen  so  harmlessly  upon 
it.  Indeed,  its  head  seems  to  have  adopted  the  shrewd 
policy  of  assuming  the  attitude  of  those  who  are 
condemned  without  being  understood.  If,  then, 
one  were  asked,  What  do  you  think  of  Christian 
Science?  the  wise  answer  would  begin  by  distin- 
guishing between  the  different  aspects  of  the  sys- 
tem. 

In  the  first  place,  then,  the  system  is  both  a  theory 
and  a  practice.  Its  theory  professes  to  be  a  system 
of  purely  rational  metaphysics.  On  this  side,  there- 
fore, the  doctrine  must  be  tested  by  the  logical 

190 


DIVINE  HEALING 

grounds  adduced  in  its  support.  If  this  supposed 
metaphysics  is  truly  rational,  it  must  be  able  to  win 
the  assent,  sooner  or  later,  of  persons  trained  in 
metaphysical  thinking  by  a  study  of  the  history  of 
philosophy.  But,  even  if  the  theory  is  imperfect, 
this  will  not  be  the  first  time  that  good  living  has 
gone  along  with  poor  theology.  On  the  side  of 
practice,  again,  the  system  is  twofold :  it  is  a  type  of 
inner  life,  and  it  is  a  method  of  preventing  and  cur- 
ing disease.  It  is  with  this  last  only  that  we  are 
now  concerned. 

We  might  easily  show  defects  in  the  metaphysical 
theory  from  which  the  mode  of  healing  professes  to 
be  deduced,  and  thereupon  be  tempted  to  utter  a 
generally  adverse  opinion.  But  is  it  not  wiser  to 
begin  at  the  other  end — first  ask  whether  the  method 
actually  produces  cures,  and,  if  so,  to  what  extent? 
As  in  the  case  of  faith  cure,  the  question  will  finally 
be,  Is  not  suggestion  probably  an  adequate  explana- 
tion of  the  success  actually  attained  by  the  method  ? 
We  may  grant  without  hesitation  that  Christian 
Science  has  taken  hold  upon  some  successful  prin-  \ 
ciple  of  healing.  What  is  that  principle,  and  what  I 
is  the  extent  of  its  application  ? 

It  is  surely  significant  that  the  rise  of  this  system 
coincides  in  time  with  the  last  and  greatest  wave  of 
scientific  attention  to  hypnotism  and  mental  thera- 
peutics. Without  questioning  the  sincerity  of  the 
account  which  Mrs.  Eddy  gives  of  the  origin  of  her 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

beliefs  and  practices,  we  can,  nevertheless,  be  rea- 
sonably convinced  of  the  real  connection  between 
them  and  the  corresponding  growth  of  scientific  cer- 
tainty concerning  the  facts  and  the  law  of  sugges- 
tion. This  will  be  plain  to  anyone  who  will  compare 
the  works  of  Mrs.  Eddy  with  Tuke  (1872)  and  Bern- 
heim  (1884).  Indeed,  it  is  doubtful  whether  she 
herself  would  claim  anything  more  than  that  she  has 
followed  a  given  path  farther  than  these  authorities. 
Let  us  see  whether,  in  fact,  her  methods — what  is 
safe  and  successful  in  them — cannot  be  entirely  ac- 
counted for  as  offshoots  from  regular  medical 
science. 

Tuke,  when  his  tooth  was  being  pulled,  repeated 
to  himself,  "How  delightful !  how  delightful !"  The 
founder  of  Christian  Science  says:  "We  attack  the 
belief  of  the  sick  in  the  reality  of  sickness,  in 
order  to  heal  them."1  Again,  she  advises:  "Men- 
tally contradict  every  complaint  from  the  body."2 
Medical  science  gives  clear  recognition  to  the  fact 
that  fear  or  expectation  of  disease  tends  to  cause 
disease,  and  that  the  replacing  of  fear  by  cheerful 
states  of  mind  is  one  means  of  restoration.  Simi- 
larly, the  founder  of  Christian  Science  says:  "Al- 
ways begin  your  treatment  by  allaying  the  fear  of 
the  patients.  ...  If  you  succeed  in  wholly  remov- 
ing the  fear,  your  patient  is  healed."3  The  last 

1  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy,  Retrospection  and  Introspection,  Boston,  1892,  76. 
*  Science  and  Health ,  Boston,  1896,  390.  3  Ibid.,  43. 


DIVINE  HEALING 

statement  means  no  more  than  this :  If  you  can  get 
a  patient  to  think  that  he  is  not  in  pain,  he  is  not  in 
pain ;  or,  a  pain  of  which  we  are  not  conscious  is  not 
a  pain.  This  is  equivalent  to  saying  that  where  therei 
is  no  painful  consciousness  there  is  no  consciousness  \ 
of  pain — a  proposition  as  useless  as  it  is  tautologous. 
As  far  as  can  be  ascertained  Jr.qm..  the,  evidence  .of 
publicly  known  fact,  the  limits  of  Christian  Science 
healing 'are  precisely  the  same ^  as ^  those  recognized 
By  the  regular  medical  profession  in  the  employment 
ofsuggestion.  The  founder  of  the  system  says: 
"Until  the  advancing  age  admits  the  efficacy  and  the 
supremacy  of  Mind,  it  is  better  to  leave  the  adjust- 
ment of  broken  bones  and  dislocations  to  the  fingers 
of  the  surgeon,  while  you  confine  yourself  chiefly  to 
mental  reconstruction,  and  the  prevention  of  in- 
flammation and  protracted  confinement."1  This  is 
a  most  curious,  not  to  say  amusing,  parallel.  And 
the  force  of  it  is  not  broken  by  Mrs.  Eddy's  claim 
that  she  has  cured  "what  is  called  organic  disease  as 
readily  as  she  has  cured  purely  functional  disease;"2 
for  the  very  same  claim  can  be  made  for  faith  cure 
in  all  its  forms  and  for  the  regular  medical  use  of 
suggestion.  The  real  question  is  not  whether  faith 
or  Christian  Science  or  plain  suggestion  has  cured 
what  are  called  organic  diseases,  but  whether  the 
diagnosis  in  these  cases  was  correct  both  before  and 
after  the  event.  Until  we  are  assured  of  such  diag- 

-  Science  and  Health ,  400.  2  Ibid.,  43. 

193 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

nosis,  after  as  well  as  before  the  cure,  we  must 
assume  that  science — without  a  prefix — has  prob- 
ably defined  the  limits  correctly.  Furthermore,  in 
the  interest  of  human  learning  and  human  happi- 
ness, whoever  knows  of  cases  such  as  Mrs,  Eddy 
claims  to  have  cured  should  use  every  endeavor  to 
bring  them  out  of  their  obscurity  into  such  light  of 
publicity  as  will  compel  conviction. 

It  is  to  be  hoped,  in  fact,  that  faith  cure  or  Chris- 
tian Science  or  something  else  will  yet  demonstrate 
all  that  is  claimed  as  to  the  possibility  of  curing 
organic  diseases  so  easily  and  quickly;  yes,  to  set 
broken  bones  and  reduce  dislocations  without  re- 
course to  physical  manipulation!  Who  that  loves 
his  fellows  would  not  hail  with  joy  such  a  demon- 
stration? Certainly  science  does  not  claim  infalli- 
bility, nor  does  it  pretend  to  say  what  is  possible  or 
impossible.  It  merely  endeavors  to  give  a  correct 
analysis  of  observable  facts.  It  is  by  analysis  of 
such  facts  that  the  present  view  of  the  capacity  of 
therapeutic  suggestion  has  been  reached,  and  noth- 
ing but  further  observation  of  the  right  kind  of 
indubitable  facts  is  necessary  to  bring  about  any 
degree  of  amendment. 

Again,  Christian  Science  treatment,  in  common 
with  medical  treatment,  has  various  degrees  of  suc- 
cess and  failure.  Not  infrequently  it  fails  com- 
pletely, even  where  the  conditions  seem  to  favor  its 

success.     This  being  so,  the  truly  scientific  attitude 

194 


DIVINE  HEALING 

of  mind  would  require  that  the  facts  be  more  com- 
pletely analyzed,  so  as  to  show  what  conditions  were 
present  in  the  successful  cases  but  absent  in  the 
others.  For  faith  curers  to  say  that  a  patient  failed 
of  a  cure  through  lack  of  faith  when  the  only  evi- 
dence  of  such  lack  is  that  the  cure  did  not  occur,  or 
for  Christian  Scientists  to  claim  a  similar  ground 
for  their  own  failures,  is  simply  to  beg  the  question. 
Now,  until  such  analysis  of  negative  cases  is  forth- 
coming from  the  believers  in  these  systems  we  must 
suppose  that  the  real  difficulty  is  in  the  practice 
itself,  and  not  in  anything  else  whatever.  Just 
where  the  difficulty  lies  is  plain  enough  to  anyone 
who  understands  the  general  facts  of  suggestion: 
faith  curers  and  Christian  Scientists  employ  it  upon 
persons  who  are  not  readily  suggestible,  and  in  dis- 
eases  in  which  it  is  inappropriate  or  inadequate, 
Tnat  the  adherents  of  these  systems  do  not  perceive 
this  to  be  the  fact  when  they  themselves  fall  victims 
to  their  own  imperfect  practice  would  be  astounding 
if  we  did  not  take  into  account  its  entire  consistency 
with  a  method  which  proves  the  possibility  of  cure 
by  deduction  instead  of  by  induction.  When  you 
deduce  a  consequence  from  a  certainly  known  prem- 
ise it  is  necessary  to  stand  by  it  at  all  hazards.  A 
neighbor  of  mine  was  found  by  a  caller  hugging  the 
fire  and  nursing  a  cold.  "O  dear !"  said  she,  "some- 
how I  have  let  go !" 

That  such  a  system  should  find  it  impossible 
195 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

accept  all  the  consequences  of  its  own  logic,  however, 
is  what  might  be  expected.  While  the  law  of  sug- 
gestion declares  simply  that  physical  functions  tend 
to  conform  themselves  to  our  ideas  of  them,  Chris- 
tian Science  goes  on  to  claim  that  we  may  so  disbe- 
lieve in  disease  as  not  to  suffer  any  pain  due  to  any 
physical  condition.  It  would  logically  follow  that 
we  could  dispense  with  food,  and  this  consequence 
Mrs.  Eddy  appears  to  have  beheld ;  for  she  says :  "It 
would  be  foolish  to  venture  beyond  our  present  un- 
derstanding, foolish  to  stop  eating  until  we  gain 
more  goodness  and  a  clearer  comprehension  of  the 
living  God.  In  that  perfect  day  of  understanding 
we  shall  neither  eat  to  live  nor  live  to  eat."1  Yes, 
one  may  reply,  it  would  be  foolish  to  venture  beyond 
our  present  understanding;  but  if  the  premises  are 
so  perfectly  understood,  how  can  the  conclusion  be 
obscure?  How,  unless  our  own  inconsistency  with 
facts  is  interpreted  as  inability  to  understand  them? 
Not  to  press  this  point  further,  we  may  notice  that 
here,  again,  as  far  as  practice  is  concerned,  medical  I 
science  and  Christian  Science  are  in  strange  har- 
mony. It  is  truly  scientific  to  continue  to  eat  until 
we  know  how  to  live  without  eating!  And  many 
who  do  not  follow  Mrs.  Eddy  believe  with  her  that 
in  the  day  of  perfect  understanding  we  shall  neither 
eat  to  live  nor  live  to  eat ! 

All  the  probabilities  are  clearly  in  favor  of  the  con- 

»  Science  and  Health,  387. 
196 


DIVINE  HEALING 

elusion  that  all  the  successes  of  Christian  Science 
healing  fall  under  the  general  law  of  suggestion.  It 
differs  from  medical  practice,  however,  in  most  im-/ 
portant  respects.  First,  being  founded  upon  a  proc-/ 
ess  of  deductive  reasoning,  or,  rather,  believing  it- 
self to  be  so  founded,  it  is  to  that  extent  incapable  of 
giving  to  observable  facts  their  proper  value.  The 
theoretical  basis,  in  other  words,  is  sought  by  a  mode 
of  intellectual  procedure  outgrown  and  condemned 
since  the  age  of  Bacon.  Second,  as  a  consequence, 
it  dispenses  with  diagnosis  of  a  real  sort ;  and,  third, 
administers  the  same  remedy  to  all  persons  and  for 
all  diseases !  In  thus  employing  a  part  for  the  whole 
it  is  not  unlike  the  various  quackeries  that  infest  the 
land. 

Of  course,  my  neighbors  point -out  the  benefits 
that  A,  B,  and  C  have  experienced.  But  just  the 
same  kind  of  testimony  can  be  had  for  almost  any 
patent  nostrum,  not  to  mention  the  work  of  the  regu- 
lar physicians.  Undoubtedly  Christian  Science  is 
employing  a  curative  agency  that  is  of  inestimable 
value  in  certain  classes  of  cases,  and  of  some  value 
to  everyone  who  wisely  employs  it  in  either  health 
or  disease.  The  crucial  question  is  not  whether  this 
method  succeeds,  but  rather  whether  it  is  being  em- 
ployed in  a  manner  that  secures  the  maximum  of\ 
good  results  with  the  minimum  of  ill  results.  Here" 
it  would  not  be  inappropriate  to  refer  to  the  disas- 
trous results  that  frequently  attend  Christian  Science 

197 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

treatment,  to  say  nothing  of  what  would  result  if  the 
general  populace  should  once  dare  to  intrust  all  ail- 
ments to  it.  But  the  distressing  facts  of  failure,  of 
needless  death,  even,  have  been  too  often  spread  be- 
fore the  public  to  need  repetition  here. 

Meanwhile,  it  is  worth  noticing  that  the  regular  j 
medical  profession  is  to-day  working  wonders  with 
suggestion  no  less  astounding  than  those  of  Chris-  ' 
tian  Science.  If  the  growth  of  Christian  Science 
has,  as  is  claimed,  stimulated  physicians  to  the  study 
of  suggestion,  let  us  be  duly  thankful.  It  is  a  prin- 
ciple with  some  of  the  great  minds  in  medical  science 
not  to  ignore  irregular,  homemade,  and  even  quack 
remedies.  But  the  more  probable  fact  is  that  Chris-  j 
tian  Science  has  merely  hastened  a  growth  that  was  I 
already  started  in  the  world  of  science  and  would  of 
itself  have  sooner  or  later  attained  all  that  lay  hid- 
den in  the  principle. /The  facts  that  I  am  about  to 
relate  as  illustrative  of  the  wonders  of  suggestion 
were  communicated  to  me  directly  by  the  physician 
concerned,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  patient  and  her 
husband.  The  patient  had  submitted  to  an  opera- 
tion, but  the  wound  had  failed  to  heal.  Suppura- 
tion set  in,  and  continued  until  the  patient  despaired 
of  life  and  was  brought  home  to  die.  A  new  physi- 
cian was  now  summoned,  the  one  who  tells  me  the 
tale.  Suspecting  that  the  difficulty  had  a  nervous 
of  mental  root,  he  proceeded,  little  by  little,  without 

the  use  of  medicines,  to  inspire  hope  in  the  patient's 

198 


DIVINE  HEALING 

mind.  He  talked  to  her  about  the  influence  of  the 
mind  upon  the  body,  even  had  her  read  passages  on 
the  subject  from  scientific  books,  taught  her  breath- 
ing, relaxation,  and  how  to  secure  physical  exercise 
though  lying  helpless  in  bed.  In  three  weeks  the 
wound  was  entirely  dry,  though  medication  other 
than  ordinary  bandaging  had  not  been  resorted  to, 
and  hypnosis  had  not  been  employed  at  all.  Im- 
provement was  rapid  from  that  point  on,  though  one 
unfavorable  circumstance  occurred  that  seemed, 
nevertheless,  to  form  the  scientific  climax  of  the  case. 
Measles  broke  out  in  the  family,  the  mother  became 
anxious  about  the  children,  and  the  wound,  already 
dry  for  some  time,  began  once  more  to  suppurate. 
Again  it  was  closed  by  purely  mental  means  together 
with  the  hygienic  measures  already  mentioned,  and 
no  more  setbacks  occurred.  In  connection  with  this 
case,  it  is  interesting  to  read  another  piece  of  advice 
given  by  Mrs.  Eddy  to  her  followers.  She  says :  "To 
fix  Truth  steadfastly  in  your  patients'  thoughts  ex- 
plain Christian  Science  to  them ;  but  not  too  soon." 
Again:  "Explain  audibly  to  your  patients  (as  soon 
as  they  can  bear  it)  the  utter  control  which  Mind 
holds  over  body."1 

If  there  were  need  of  further  illustrating  what  is 
common  to  medical  practice  on  the  one  hand,  and 
Christian  Science  and  faith  cure  practice  on  the 
other,  in  so  far,  that  is,  as  the  latter  succeed,  it  would 

1  Science  and  Health ,  412,  413. 

199 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

be  possible  to  multiply  many  times  instances  scarcely 
less  remarkable  than  the  one  just  described.  But 
enough  has  been  said  to  show  the  common  principle 
of  all  these  different  classes  of  healing  without  medi- 
cation. The  conclusion  is  that  no  one  possesses  a 
monopoly  of  this  principle ;  that  the  effectiveness  of 
the  principle  is  utterly  independent  of  the  theolog- 
ical or  metaphysical  theories  that  sometimes  accom- 
pany its  use,  and  that,  in  the  interest  of  the  highest 
safety  as  well  as  effectiveness,  its  application  requires 
scientific  diagnosis,  and,  indeed,  scientific  observa- 
tion and  guidance  from  beginning  to  end. 

Suggestion  and  Miracle. 

Facts  like  those  of  suggestive  healing  have  not 
failed  to  raise  the  question  whether  suggestion  may 
not  be  the  clew  to  the  miraculous  element  in  the  lives 
of  the  saints,  and  even  in  the  life  of  Christ,  to  say 
nothing  of  its  bearing  upon  the  wonder-working 
features  of  other  religions.  On  the  face  of  the 
stories  of  saintly  visions,  trances,  and  revelations, 
one  can  certainly  read  the  imprint  of  auto-sugges-  \ 
tion.  Nor  must  we  stop  here.  Let  us  consider  two 
exclusive  cases  of  the  most  strange  physical  mani- 
festations that  have  been  known  to  accompany  spirit- 
ual exaltation.  Seven  hundred  years  ago  St.  Fran- 
cis of  Assisi,  founder  of  the  order  of  the  Franciscans, 
after  long  meditation  on  the  wounds  of  Christ,  found 

upon  his  own  person  sores  or  "stigmata"  corre- 

200 


DIVINE  HEALING 

spending  to  the  five  wounds  of  the  Saviour.  Simi- 
larly, in  the  third  quarter  of  this  century,  Louise 
Lateau,  a  devout  girl,  repeatedly  shed  blood  at  the 
same  points.  A  committee  of  competent  investi- 
gators, after  carefully  examining  into  her  case,  be- 
came convinced  that  the  phenomena  were  genuine, 
and  free  from  intentional  deception.  But  this  very 
wonder  has  been  duplicated  in  substance  by  one  or 
more  hypnotic  subjects  through  whose  skin  blood 
has  been  caused  to  exude  by  suggestion.  Lesser 
phenomena  of  the  same  class,  such  as  the  production 
of  redness,  inflammation,  and  swelling,  have  been 
repeatedly  witnessed. 

If  all  this  should  throw  light  upon  some  of  the 
miracles  of  Christ,  there  would  be  no  occasion  for 
wonder.  There  appears  no  impropriety  in  his  em- 
ploying suggestion  to  the  full  extent  of  its  therapeu- 
tic capacity.  He  made  no  claims  not  to  do  so.  Fur- 
thermore, he  did  not  in  any  way  explain  the  modus 
operandi  of  his  acts  of  compassionate  healing.  What 
is  left  to  us,  then,  but  to  analyze  these  events  as  we 
would  any  others,  and  to  accept  the  explanations  of 
science  as  far  as  they  go  ?  This  is  not  the  place,  even 
if  the  disposition  were  present,  to  give  summary  his- 
torical judgment  upon  the  problems  to  which  this 
mode  of  study  would  lead.  Certainly  much  is  re- 
corded for  which  suggestion  offers  no  explanation, 
but  this  should  by  no  means  deter  us  from  applying 
this  clew  wherever  it  suffices,  and  trying  it  wherever 


201 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

there  is  the  least  prospect  of  success.  Any  fear  that 
this  would  detract  from  his  unique  claims  would 
simply  misplace  the  accent  of  the  whole  Christian 
conception.  It  would  turn  attention  from  the  Christ 
himself  to  physical  phenomena.  Against  this  very 
misplacement  of  accent  Jesus  himself  explicitly  pro- 
tested. It  would  be  in  no  degree  derogatory  to  his 
character  or  to  his  claims  of  most  intimate  relations 
with  the  Father  that  he  should  employ  the  ordinary 
forces  of  nature  and  of  mind.  There  is  even  collat- 
eral evidence  in  one  case  that  this  was  the  fact.  The 
multitude  of  all  sorts  of  sick  folk  who  resorted  to  the 
pool  of  Bethesda — can  there  be  any  doubt  that  the 
kind  of  help  they  received  was  largely  the  same  as 
that  derived  from  the  sacred  pools  one  can  see  to-day 
in  various  parts  of  Europe  ?  And  if  so,  Jesus' s  word, 
taking  the  place  of  the  pool,  may  justly  be  regarded 
as  healing  by  the  same  means.  We  simply  do  not 
need  to  look  any  farther  to  find  the  explanation. 

This  leads  to  the  remark  that  the  very  idea  of  the 
revelation  of  God  in  Christ  is  that  of  a  divine  pos- 
session and  use  of  finite  faculties.    Neither  in  the  life 
of  Jesus  nor  in  the  prayers  of  any  follower  of  his  are  / 
we  to  assume  a  separation  of  natural  from  super- 1 
natural.    To  unfold  all  that  this  implies  would  carry 
us  too  far  into  philosophy  and  into  the  interpretation 
of  the  profoundest  conceptions  of  Christianity.    But 
this  one  word  is  offered  in  order  to  prevent  the  mis- 
assumption  that  the  farthest  possible  application  of 


202 


DIVINE  HEALING 

scientific  knowledge  to  any  event,  whether  in  our 
lives  of  trust  and  prayer  or  in  the  life  of  the  Master, 
at  all  excludes,  or  puts  away,  or  in  any  degree  mini- 
mizes, those  divine  influences  in  which  we  live  and 
move  and  have  our  being. 

Hygienic  and  Therapeutic  Value  of  the  Christian 

Attitude  toward  Life. 

If  we  may  assume  that  the  keynote  of  a  normal 
Christian  life  is  not  the  thought  of  sin,  or  of  peni- 
tence, or  of  suffering,  or  of  anxiety  of  any  sort,  but 
rather  that  of  a  joyous  realization  of  the  highest 
good,  a  realization  begun  now  and  growing  ever 
toward  greater  fullness — if  we  may  assume  this, 
then  it  follows  that  the  Christian  mode  of  life  tends 
directly  toward  physical  health.  Other  things  being 
equal,  a  religion  that  ruled  by  fear  would  have  less 
robust  votaries  than  one  ruled  by  love.  Faith,  hope, 
and  loVe  are  all  full  of  constructive  suggestion ;  for 
the  first  two  take  the  attention  away  from  present 
evil  to  present  and  future  good ;  and  love — the  out- 
going of  self  toward  others  for  their  own  good — is 
the  very  antithesis  of  that  brooding  and  self-con- 
templation whence  grow  the  rankest  weeds  of  un- 
healthful  auto-suggestion.  With  persons  of  certain 
temperaments,  if  not  of  all,  selfishness  is  distinctly 
unhealthful ;  and  so  it  comes  to  pass  that  he  who  fails 
to  use  his  health  for  the  bettering  of  the  world  is  in 

danger  of  losing  even  that  which  he  hath. 

203 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

It  is  remarkable  how  fully  Jesus  expressed  the 
healthful  state  of  mind  in  respect  to  God  and  his 
relation  to  our  interests.  "Be  not  anxious,"  "Let 
not  your  heart  be  troubled" — these  are  words  of 
physical  as  well  as  spiritual  healing.  If  we  consider 
how,  in  spite  of  his  own  wondrous  load  of  sorrow, 
he  nevertheless  with  unremitting  consistency  painted 
life  in  colors  the  very  opposite  of  all  that  is  morbid, 
of  all  that  is  depressing ;  how,  though  he  never  blind- 
ed the  eyes  of  his  followers  to  the  suffering  they 
should  endure  for  his  sake,  he  taught  them  how  to 
rejoice  even  in  tribulation ;  and  how  perfectly  all  this 
fits  one  of  the  deepest  physical  as  well  as  spiritual 
needs  of  the  world — if  we  consider  all  this,  we  shall 

see  new  reason  for  calling  him  the  Great  Physician. 

204 


SPIRITUALITY 


CHAPTER  V 

A  Study  of  Spirituality 

As  long  as  men  differ  as  profoundly  as  they  do 
in  temperament,  education,  occupation,  and  what- 
ever else  goes  to  shape  a  man's  mode  of  reacting  to 
the  facts  of  life,  there  will  be  different  types  of  reli- 
gious experience.    It  becomes  a  matter  of  the  great- 1 
est  importance,  therefore,  to  adjust  religious  train-, 
ing  and  religious  exercises  so  as  to  appeal  to  the  , 
universally  human  in  all  these  variations.    What  ap- , 
peals  to  one  man  will  not  appeal  to  another.     To 
adopt  a  homely  old  saw,  "What's  one  man's  food  is 
another's  poison."    Emerson  says : 

"  I  like  a  church  ;  I  like  a  cowl ; 

I  love  a  prophet  of  the  soul ; 

And  on  my  heart  monastic  aisles 

Fall  like  sweet  strains,  or  pensive  smiles : 

Yet  not  for  all  his  faith  can  see 

Would  I  that  cowled  churchman  be. 

Why  should  the  vest  on  him  allure, 

Which  I  could  not  on  me  endure?"—  The  Problem. 

There  is,  undoubtedly,  something  universal  in  reli- 
gion, something  adapted  to  all  men,  irrespective  of 
temperamental  and  other  peculiarities.  When,  how- 
ever, one  tries  to  say  just  what  that  something  is, 
one's  own  temperament  and  environment  are  likely 

to  tint  one's  statement.     Nevertheless,  the  general 
14  205 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

religious  consciousness  of  the  world  appears  to  be 
reaching  the  conclusion  that  Jesus  grasped  this  uni- 
versal principle  and  gave  it  a  consummate  expression  I 
in  his  statement  of  the  law  of  love.  Love  to  God  1 
and  love  to  fellow-men — this  is  the  universally  at- 
tainable in  religious  experience.  Yet  even  this  law 
is  liable  to  be  misunderstood  unless  we  go  back  to 
the  Greek  and  observe  that  the  verb  translated  "love" 
does  not  mean  "be  fond  of,"  does  not  designate 
primarily  a  state  of  feeling,  but  a  state  of  will,  an 
attitude  of  mind  that  can  be  voluntarily  assumed  by 
all  persons,  irrespective  of  temperamental  and  other 
peculiarities. 

In  the  course  of  ecclesiastical  development,  how- 
ever, this  universally  human  conception  of  the  reli- 
gion of  Christ  has  been  warped  into  special  tempera- 
mental forms.  What  Jesus  made  so  broad  has  been 
narrowed  down  to  fit  a  particular  kind  of  men,  and 
temperamental  differences  have  been  mistaken  for 
grades  of  spirituality.  Following  the  fourfold  di- 
vision of  temperaments,  we  may  say  that  more  than 
justice  has  been  done  to  the  melancholic  and  san- 
guine temperaments,  and  less  than  justice  to  the 
choleric.  Or,  pursuing  the  qualitative  mode  of 
classification,  we  may  say  that  feeling  has  been  un- 
duly honored  to  the  relative  neglect  of  thought  and, 
especially,  of  action. 

It  may  conduce  to  clearness  to  give  at  this  point 

a  brief  description  of  the  four  temperaments.    The 

206 


SPIRITUALITY 

sanguine  temperament,  to  begin  with,  is  impulsive 
and  impressionable.  It  responds  promptly  to  the 
most  heterogeneous  influences  and  impulses;  is  full 
of  feeling,  ardent,  hopeful,  absorbed  in  the  present ; 
but  its  impressions  and  impulses  are  changeable  and 
lacking  in  depth.  The  melancholic  or,  more  proper- 
ly,  sentimental  temperament  is  largely  given  to  feel- 
ing and  to  feeling  of  a  deeper  and  more  lasting  sort. 
It  is  introspective,  tends  somewhat  strongly  to  un- 
happy moods,  values  the  future  above  the  present, 
and  weighs  everything  by  standards  drawn  from 
ideals  that  master  the  feelings.  Next,  the  choleric 
temperament,  in  contrast  with  both  these,  is  the  tem- 
perament of  action.  Thought  is  not  necessarily  lack- 
ing in  the  melancholic  temperament,  but  it  does  not 
tend  so  directly  to  practical  issues  as  it  does  in  the 
choleric.  The  choleric  man  is  prompt,  intense,  per- 
haps impetuous.  He  looks  without  rather  than  with- 
in, and  values  the  present  above  the  future.  He  is 
likely  to  value  consistency  very  highly,  and  his  tend- 
ency is  to  be  more  intense  than  broad.  The  phleg- 
matic  temperament,  finally,  is  the  slow  one,  the  tem- 
perament of  deliberation  rather  than  of  feeling  or 
of  impulse  or  of  practical  effectiveness.  It  must  be 
understood,  of  course,  that  no  one  of  these  tempera- 
ments is  often  met  with  in  its  purity  in  any  one  per- 
son, although  nearly  everyone  has  a  greater  leaning 
in  one  direction  than  another.  When  our  discussion 

speaks  of  persons  of  this  or  that  temperament,  there- 

207 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

fore,  the  meaning  is  always  persons  whose  mental 
organization  is  predominantly  of  the  type  named. 

It  has  just  been  suggested  that  the  development 
of  ecclesiastical  Christianity  has  tended  to  give 
more  than  their  due  to  the  sanguine  and  melan- 
cholic temperaments,  and  less  than  its  due  to  the 
choleric.  The  evidence  for  this  must  now  be  of- 
fered. And  first  let  us  undertake  a 

Psychological  Analysis  of  Sainthood. 

If  you  will  run  over  in  your  mind  the  qualities  of 
mind  and  character  which  the  Church,  though 
hardly  mankind  in  general,  is  most  fond  of  con- 
templating, you  will  readily  perceive  that  the  specif- 
ically saintly  qualities,  in  the  traditional  sense  of 
sainthood,  are  almost  exclusively  states  of  feeling. 
A  saint  may  have  a  strong  intellect  and  vigorous 
will,  but  his  claim  to  sainthood  is  not  found  in 
either  of  these.  The  saintly  feeling  may  be  either 
a  quiet  river,  flowing  through  meadows  of  medita- 
tion toward  the  ocean  of  infinite  love,  or  a  mountain 
stream  with  many  a  thundering  cataract ;  but  feeling 
of  one  kind  or  another  is  the  predominant  quality. 

Take  St.  Antony  as  an  example.  In  Butler's 
Lives  of  the  Fathers,  Martyrs,  and  Other  Principal 
Saints,  we  read  that,  at  the  age  of  twenty,  Antony, 
listening  to  a  sermon,  heard  the  words,  "Go,  sell  all 
that  thou  hast  and  give  to  the  poor."  He  imme- 
diately applied  these  words  literally  to  himself,  and 

208 


SPIRITUALITY 

with  such  impetuosity  that  the  question  is  a  legiti- 
mate one  whether  his  act  was  not  a  product  of  sug- 
gestion pure  and  simple.  He  then  became  a  recluse 
and  fled  to  the  desert,  where  he  gave  himself  up  to 
solitary  contemplation  and  extreme  austerities. 
Here  he  passed  through  a  remarkable  inner  drama. 
Storm  after  storm  of  temptation  swept  over  him. 
At  times  the  intensity  of  his  feelings  produced  hal- 
lucinations :  he  heard  the  voice  of  Christ,  was  beat- 
en by  devils,  was  frightened  by  a  specter  of  a  black 
boy,  was  enticed  by  a  phantom  woman. 

The  picture  here  is  perfectly  self-consistent,  and 
its  explanation  has  been  given  in  the  last  two  chap- 
ters. Antony  was  a  person  of  intense  sensibility 
united  with  a  high  tendency  to  mental  automatisms. 
He  belongs  to  the  same  class  as  the  persons  in 
Group  I  of  Chapter  III. 

St.  Francis  of  Assisi  is  perhaps  the  best  example 
of  what  the  Roman  Church  means  by  a  saint.  The 
instance  of  his  extreme  suggestibility  given  in  the 
last  chapter  has  its  setting  in  a  highly  emotional 
temperament.  We  are  told  that  he  "communicated 
[partook  of  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  supper] 
very  often,  and  ordinarily  with  ecstasies  in  which 
his  soul  was  rapt  and  suspended  in  God."  Often 
while  in  prayer  he  fell  into  raptures.  Contempla- 
tion of  the  sufferings  of  Christ  brought  on  weep- 
ing so  copious  and  prolonged  as  to  ruin  his  eyes. 

What  it  meant  to  him  to  have  communion  with  God 

209 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

is  shown  by  a  canticle  which  he  composed  on  the 
love  of  Christ,  a  part  of  which  is  subjoined: 

"Into  love's  furnace  I  am  cast; 

Into  love's  fui'nace  I  am  cast ; 

I  burn,  I  languish,  pine,  and  waste. 

0  love  divine,  how  sharp  thy  dart ! 

How  deep  the  wound  that  galls  my  heart! 
As  wax  in  heat,  so,  from  above 
My  smitten  soul  dissolves  in  love. 

1  live,  yet  languishing  I  die, 
While  in  thy  furnace  bound  I  lie. 

In  love's  sweet  swoon  to  thee  I  cleave, 
Bless'd  source  of  love. 

Love's  slave,  in  chains  of  strong  desire 
I'm  bound. 

Grant,  O  my  God,  who  diedst  for  me, 
I,  sinful  wretch,  may  die  for  thee 
Of  love's  deep  wounds  ;  love  to  embrace, 
To  swim  in  its  sweet  sea  ;  thy  face 
To  see  ;  then,  joined  with  thee  above, 
Shall  I  myself  pass  into  love." 

Protestants,  of  course,  revert  less  to  St.  Francis 
than  to  an  earlier  man  of  God  who,  though  he  be 
the  intellectual  father  of  Western  theology,  is  no 
less  remarkable  for  the  emotional  side  of  his  reli- 
gious life.  Augustine's  Confessions  clearly  show 
that  he  was  accustomed  to  indulge  emotions  for 
their  own  sake.  Speaking  of  some  of  his  youthful 
follies,  he  exclaims,  "Who  can  unravel  that  twisted 
and  tangled  knottiness?  It  is  foul.  I  hate  to  re- 

210 


SPIRITUALITY 

fleet  on  it.  I  hate  to  look  on  it."1  But  herein  he 
probably  misunderstands  himself,  for  everything 
shows  that  he  fairly  revels  in  self-analysis.  Hear 
how  he  dissects  his  feelings  upon  the  death  of  a 
friend :  "At  this  sorrow  my  heart  was  utterly  dark- 
ened, and  whatever  I  looked  upon  was  death.  My 
native  country  was  a  torture  to  me,  and  my  father's 
house  a  wondrous  unhappiness ;  and  whatsoever  I 
had  participated  in  with  him,  wanting  him,  turned 
into  a  frightful  torture.  Mine  eyes  sought  him 
everywhere,  but  he  was  not  granted  them;  and  I 
hated  all  places  because  he  was  not  in  them;  nor 
could  they  now  say  to  me,  'Behold,  he  is  coming/ 
as  they  did  when  he  was  alive  and  absent.  I  be- 
came a  great  puzzle  to  myself,  and  asked  my  soul 
why  she  was  so  sad,  and  why  she  so  exceedingly 
disquieted  me.  .  .  .  Naught  but  tears  were  sweet  to 
me,  and  they  succeeded  my  friend  in  the  dearest  of 
my  affections.  And  now,  O  Lord,  these  things  are 
passed  away,  and  time  hath  healed  my  wound.  May 
I  learn  from  thee  .  .  .  why  weeping  should  be  so 
sweet  to  the  unhappy.  .  .  .  Whence,  then,  is  it  that 
such  sweet  fruit  is  plucked  from  the  bitterness  of 
life,  from  groans,  tears,  sighs,  and  lamentations?"2 
Again,  describing  the  same  experience,  he  says: 
"All  things  looked  terrible,  even  the  very  light  it- 
self; and  whatsoever  was  not  what  he  was,  was 
repulsive  and  hateful,  except  groans  and  tears,  for  in 

1  Book  ii,  chap.  x.  *  Book  iv,  chaps,  iv  and  v. 

211 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

those  alone  found  I  a  little  repose."1  Here  is  a  soul 
that  not  only  feels  profoundly,  but  also  rolls  his 
feelings  under  his  tongue  and  secures  satisfaction 
therefrom  just  because  they  are  feelings.  The  con- 
nection between  this  trait  and  Augustine's  besetting 
sin  in  his  unregenerate  days  is  plain  enough. 

There  is,  moreover,  a  direct  connection  between 
this  temperamental  quality  and  the  characteristics 
of  Augustine's  religious  experience.  It  is  in  exact 
keeping  that  an  hallucination  should  accompany  his 
conversion,  and  that,  looking  backward,  we  should 
find  that  his  mother  had  repeatedly  beheld  visions.2 
After  his  conversion  he  still  likes  his  food,  but, 
looking  upon  all  pleasures  of  sense  as  a  temptation 
of  the  flesh,  he  examines  himself  with  painful  mi- 
nuteness to  see  whether  his  only  motive  for  eating 
is  the  preservation  of  health.  The  result  is  tribula- 
tion of  soul,  for  he  finds  that  he  sometimes  eats  be- 
cause he  likes  to,  and  so  eats  more  than  is  absolutely 
necessary  !3  Thus  the  passionate  Augustine,  always 
intemperate  where  feeling  was  concerned,  was  now 
intemperately  temperate.  The  same  thing  happens 
with  respect  to  the  music  of  the  Church.  Of  course 
such  sensibilities  as  his  could  not  help  enjoying 
music,  and  so  he  must  confess,  "When  it  happens 
to  me  to  be  more  moved  by  the  singing  than  by  what 
is  sung  I  confess  myself  to  have  sinned  criminally, 

1  Book  iv,  chap,  vii        *  Book  iii,  chap,  xi ;  book  v.  chap,  ix ;  book  vij  chap.  I 
*  Book  x,  chap.  xxxi. 

212 


SPIRITUALITY 

and  then  I  would  rather  not  have  heard  the  singing. 
See,  now,  the  condition  I  am  in!  Weep  with  me, 
and  weep  for  me,  you  who  so  control  your  inward 
feelings  as  that  good  results  ensue."1 

Citations  like  these  do  not,  of  course,  discredit 
the  piety  of  any  saint.  It  is  not  at  all  for  the  pur- 
pose of  detracting  from  anyone's  reputation  for 
holiness  that  the  point  has  been  raised,  but  rather 
for  the  sake  of  asking  whether  the  saintly  qualities 
that  the  Church  has  officially  most  delighted  to 
honor  do  not  presuppose  temperamental  traits  pos- 
sessed by  only  a  part  of  humanity.  Have  not  tem-| 
peramental  qualities  been  made  a  standard  for 
measuring  spirituality?  The  typical  saint  is  the 
one  who  feels  most — the  one  who  feels  the  hollow- 
ness  of  the  world  or  the  awfulness  of  sin,  who  re- 
pents with  strong  groans  and  tears,  who  has  great 
fervor  in  prayer,  or  a  permanent  mood  of  calm 
trustfulness,  or  ecstatic  communion  with  the  divine, 
or  great  billows  of  triumphant  joy.  Before  such 
experiences  can  be  common  or  characteristic  there 
must  be  present,  first  of  all,  a  mental  organization 
of  a  particular  kind.  There  are  many,  many  persons 
who  simply  cannot  feel  the  hollowness  of  the  secular 
life  that  drove  many  saints  to  the  desert.  Only  now 
and  then  do  we  find  a  person  who  can  give  himself 
up  to  meditation,  prayer,  self-examination,  and  the 
other  spiritual  exercises  of  the  typical  saint.  I  once 

1  Book  x.  chap.  xxxiiL 
213 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

heard  a  theologian  say  that  if  he  had  an  extremely 
important  duty  to  perform  in  a  very  brief  time  he 
would  spend  the  first  quarter  or  half  of  the  time  in 
prayer.  But,  with  the  whole  situation  impelling 
one  to  be  up  and  doing,  persons  of  a  more  active 
nature  simply  could  not  spend  so  much  time  in  real 
prayer.  The  very  attempt  to  do  so  would  seem  to 
them  to  be  a  sacrilegious  waste  of  time. 

Spiritual  Exercises. 

It  is  only  natural  that  this  ideal  of  sainthood 
should  color  our  spiritual  exercises,  or  efforts  after 
spiritual  culture.  This  remark  applies  to  the  more 
mystical  or,  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  devotional 
current  in  both  Catholicism  and  Protestantism,  and 
particularly,  in  our  day,  to  Protestant  Churches  that 
put  special  stress  upon  what  is  called  personal  piety 
or  personal  religious  experience.  Here  introspec- 
tion and  the  cultivation  of  certain  moods  are  held 
in  especial  esteem.  When  prayer  is  offered  in  a 
devotional  meeting  for  a  "personal  blessing"  what  is 
really  meant  appears  to  be  a  comfortable  religious 
emotion.  As  the  term  "blessing"  is  here  commonly 
employed  it  would  hardly  include  the  perception 
of  a  new  truth  or  a  calm  and  deliberate  decision 
to  perform  a  duty.  It  may  be  asked,  furthermore, 
whether  the  most  common  notion  of  Christian 
testimony  is  not  tUat  of  witnessing  to  states  of 

feeling. 

214 


SPIRITUALITY 

Now,  it  is  necessary  to  enter  a  loud  caveat  lest 
all  this  should  be  taken  to  be  a  denunciation  of  the 
cultivation  of  religious  feeling.  On  the  contrary, 
to  seek  to  experience  religious  emotion,  or,  rather, 
to  put  one's  self  in  the  way  of  experiencing  it,  is  as 
reasonable  as  any  other  part  of  religious  aspiration. 
To  take  feeling  out  of  religion  would  be  as  absurd 
as  to  take  parental  or  conjugal  fondness  out  of  the 
family.  Yet  it  is  not  possible  to  maintain  the  family 
solely,  or  even  chiefly,  by  reliance  upon  feeling. 
What  we  protest  against  is  one-sidedness ;  what  we 
plead  for  is  symmetry.  Religion  ought  to  rest  upon 
and  call  into  exercise  all  the  faculties  of  the  mind, 
and  no  superior  sanctity  should  be  ascribed  to  per- 
sons whose  temperamental  make-up  is  sentimental 
rather  than  choleric. 

Professor  James,  remarking  on  the  flabbiness  of 
character  that  results  from  a  disproportionate  ex- 
ercise of  passive  emotion,  advises  that  we  never  so 
much  as  listen  to  a  concert  without  compelling  our- 
selves to  perform  also  some  voluntary  act  for  the 
sake  of  preserving  the  equilibrium  between  sensi- 
bility and  will.1  When  this  equilibrium  is  lost  in 
rushes  a  tide  of  religious  vagaries.  At  a  camp 
meeting  in  western  New  York  a  number  of  years 
ago  a  brother  testified  somewhat  as  follows :  "Breth- 
ren, I  feel— I  feel— I  feel— I  feel  that  I  feel— I  can't 
tell  you  how  I  feel,  but  O,  I  feel !  I  feel !" 

1  Principles  of  Psychology .  New  York,  1890,  i,  i«sf. 
215 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

Not  long  since,  the  pastor  of  an  important  church 
made  a  remark  to  me  substantially  like  this :  "There 
are  in  my  church  two  distinct  classes  of  members. 
On  the  one  hand,  there  is  a  group  of  substantial 
persons  of  high  character  and  agreeable  conduct 
who  support  the  enterprises  of  the  church  with  their 
money,  but  are  rarely  or  never  seen  at  prayer  meet- 
ing. One  never  sees  them  prostrated  before  God  in 
earnest  prayer.  If  a  sinner  should  come  weeping 
to  the  altar  they  would  not  gather  round  to  pray 
for  him.  If  he  should  rise  shouting  they  would 
shake  hands  with  him  and  tell  him  they  were  glad 
he  had  started,  but  that  is  all.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  is  a  class  of  members  who  can  be  relied  upon 
to  be  present  at  the  prayer  meeting,  who  would  rush 
to  the  altar  to  pray  with  a  sinner,  and  who,  if  he 
should  rise  shouting,  would  scarcely  know  whether 
they  were  in  the  body  or  out  of  the  body.  Never- 
theless, these  persons  are  without  influence  in  spite 
of  their  unction.  They  are  flighty  and  changeable 
in  their  moods,  lack  organization,  and  their  judg- 
ment is  not  to  be  trusted.  If  I  were  to  go  on  a  long 
journey  I  would  not  choose  them  for  companions, 
but  rather  persons  of  the  former  description.  And 
if  I  were  to  go  sailing  in  a  small  boat  I  would  not 
take  one  of  these  prayer-meeting  members  with  me 
lest  he  should  have  a  spell  of  some  sort  and  capsize 
the  boat."  Without  even  guessing  what  he  was 

doing,  this  pastor  drew  a  firm  line  between  two 

216 


SPIRITUALITY 

temperamental  groups.  On  one  side  he  ranged  the 
members  of  his  flock  who  manifest  either  the  mel- 
ancholic or  the  sanguine  characteristics  in  excess, 
and  confessed  that  the  spiritual  exercises  of  his 
church  appealed  almost  exclusively  to  them.  On 
the  other  side  he  ranged  the  more  choleric  and  more 
balanced  characters,  against  whom,  it  appears,  there 
lies  a  suspicion  of  defective  spirituality,  and  for  no 
other  reason  than  that  they  do  not  respond  heartily 
to  forms  of  church  life  and  activity  that  are  based 
upon  a  narrow  and  ill-balanced  conception  of  the 
spiritual  life. 

Trace  this  temperamental  line  a  step  further  and 
you  will  come  upon  the  psychological  root  of  what 
distinguishes  holiness  movements  from  the  ordi- 
nary life  of  the  churches.  A  holiness  band  or  sect 
that  separates  itself  from  the  general  life  of  the 
church  is  organized  and  held  together  chiefly  by 
temperamental  affinities.  This  fact  sets  a  rather 
strict  limit  to  the  possible  growth  of  such  move- 
ments, and  goes  far  toward  explaining  their  tend- 
ency to  early  dissolution.  It  is  no  more  possible  for 
the  generality  of  Christians  to  attain  the  ecstasy  or 
maintain  the  exalted  serenity  often  proclaimed  as 
their  privilege  than  it  is  for  them  all  to  feel  drawn 
toward  the  life  of  monks,  nuns,  and  hermits.  Any- 
one who  doubts  this  statement  would  do  well  to  ob- 
serve how  many  seek  for  these  experiences  and  how 

few  attain  them,  j  Whether  the  honest  seeker  shall 

217 


\ 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

attain  or  not  is  simply  a  question  of  suggestibility 
and  temperament. 

The  interest  which  many  churches  and  pastors 
are  now  beginning  to  take  in  the  social  problems 
that  agitate  our  times  promises  to  do  much  toward 
removing  the  historical  stigma  upon  the  conception 
of  spirituality.  Men  are  beginning  to  perceive  and 
to  teach  that  merely  filling  one's  station  in  life  in 
the  fear  of  God  is  a  spiritual  exercise.  Doubtless 
one  who  is  absorbed  in  the  activities  of  what  is 
called  practical  life  has  all  the  greater  need  for 
specific  culture  of  the  contemplative  and  emotional 
side  of  human  nature ;  but  it  will  be  a  great  triumph 
for  truth  when  the  Church  generally  comes  to  be- 
lieve and  teach  that  the  normal  exercise  of  one  fac- 
ulty is  neither  more  nor  less  a  spiritual  act  than  the 
normal  exercise  of  any  other  faculty. 

With  the  enfranchisement  of  the  moral  will  we 
may  expect  also  a  recognition  of  the  spiritual  ca- 
pacities of  intellect.  Perhaps  the  most  typical  illus- 
tration of  the  attitude  of  many  religious  minds 
toward  the  intellect  is  afforded  by  the  distinction 
not  seldom  made  between  the  devotional  study  of 
the  Bible  and  the  intellectual  study  of  it.  To  say 
nothing  of  the  confusion  involved  in  the  notion  of  a 
nonintellectual  study  of  anything,  we  might  ask 
whether  truth  has  not  a  positive  relation  to  religious 
devotion.  We  cannot  admit  the  possibility  that 

either  untruth  or  the  absence  of  truth  concerning 

218 


SPIRITUALITY 

the  Bible  can  produce  or  promote  any  truly  devo- 
tional state  of  mind.  Surely,  the  followers  of  Him 
who  is  the  Truth,  as  well  as  the  Way  and  the  Life, 
must  see,  upon  reflection,  that  the  impulse  after 
exact  and  complete  knowledge  of  whatever  may  be 
known  is  included  in  the  most  complete  worship. 
What  a  paradox  it  is  that  anyone  who  worships  a 
being  of  absolute  wisdom,  and  looks  for  guidance 
to  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  should  nevertheless  exclude 
intellectual  exercises  from  the  conception  of  the 
spiritual  life!  Shall  we  not  at  last  learn  that  we 
may  assume  an  attitude  toward  all  truth  that  is  it- 
self essentially  worship  of  the  God  of  Truth?  A 
prominent  philosopher  of  our  day  has  put  one  aspect 
of  the  matter  in  these  profoundly  true  words :  "All 
of  us,  I  presume,  more  or  less  are  led  beyond  the 
region  of  ordinary  facts.  Some  in  one  way  and 
some  in  others,  we  seem  to  touch  and  have  com- 
munion with  what  is  beyond  the  visible  world.  In 
various  manners  we  find  something  higher  which 
both  supports  and  humbles,  both  chastens  and  trans- 
ports us.  And,  with  certain  persons,  the  intellectual 
effort  to  understand  the  universe  is  a  principal  way 
of  thus  experiencing  the  Deity."1 

Some  Psychological  Aspects  of  Hymnology. 

Song  proceeds  from  emotion  as  one  of  its  most 
natural  and  adequate  expressions.     It  returns  to 

1  F.  H.  Bradley,  Appearance  and  Reality,  $f. 
2IQ 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

emotion,  also,  as  its  quickener  and  inspirer.  We  1 
should  expect  sacred  music,  then,  to  be  full  of  reli- 
gious feeling;  and  the  test  of  its  quality  will  be  just 
its  capacity  to  communicate  in  fitting  literary  and 
musical  form  the  various  chords,  major  and  minor, 
that  resound  throughout  normal  religious  experi- 
ence. Should  it  omit  to  echo  some  of  these  chords, 
or  vary  too  little  from  some  one  or  a  few  favorite 
chords,  in  either  case  it  would  be  defective  itself  or 
significant  of  defect  in  ecclesiastical  life.  It  is  rea- 
sonable to  look  to  the  hymns  sung  by  any  Church  forf 
an  index,  true  though  partial,  of  the  emotional  as- 
pect of  its  life.  If  we  find  certain  types  of  senti-* 
ment  unrepresented  in  the  hymns,  we  infer  that  the 
corresponding  type  of  religious  experience  has  not 
been  sufficiently  cultivated  to  secure  proportional 
musical  expression. 

It  must  be  remembered,  too,  that  emotion  has  a 
scale  as  large  and  as  varied  as  human  life  itself. 
When  we  speak  of  emotional  temperament,  emo- 
tional novels,  emotional  religious  meetings,  and  the 
like,  what  we  really  have  in  mind  is  not  merely  the 
abundance  of  emotion,  but  also  the  quality.  A  tale 
of  heroic  action,  for  example,  may  stir  the  reader 
fully  as  much  as  a  tale  of  suffering,  but  only  the 
latter  would  ordinarily  be  called  emotional.  Just 
so,  every  normal  religious  activity  has  its  own  ap- 
propriate emotional  coloring,  but  not  every  form 
of  religious  life  would  be  popularly  called  emotional. 

220 


SPIRITUALITY 

In  any  attempt  at  a  psychological  analysis  of 
hymnology,  therefore,  it  is  necessary  to  note  what 
emotion,  rather  than  what  degree  of  emotion,  comes 
to  expression.  In  particular,  in  the  present  instance 
we  need  to  know  whether,  as  in  the  most  approved 
spiritual  exercises,  the  point  of  view  tends  to  be  that 
of  feeling  for  its  own  sake  or  that  of  feeling  as  the 
atmospheric  coloring  of  a  many-sided  conscious- 
ness. More  specifically,  is  the  point  of  view  that 
of  introspection,  subjectivity,  self -consciousness,  or 
that  of  practical  activities  and  interests  and  facts? 

Bearing  this  distinction  in  mind,  let  us  examine 
the  first  Hymnal  that  comes  to  hand,  that  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  Possibly  the  scope 
of  its  contents  will  scarcely  correspond  with  the 
scope  of  the  hymns  most  frequently  in  actual  use; 
and  yet  any  such  depository  of  the  ages  will  surely 
reveal  something  as  to  the  question  before  us. 

The  Methodist  Hymnal  contains,  to  begin  with, 
8 1  hymns  on  the  subject  of  Christ.  Of  these  15 
have  to  do  with  his  incarnation  and  birth,  21  with 
his  sufferings  and  death,  37  with  his  resurrection, 
priesthood,  and  reign,  and  only  8  with  his  life  and 
character;  that  is,  only  one  in  ten  of  the  hymns 
about  Christ  have  to  do  with  his  life  and  character. 
Moreover,  of  these  eight,  three  deal  with  the  trans- 
figuration, one  deals  with  his  patience,  one  with  his 
meekness,  one  with  his  tears,  one  speaks  of  him  as 

a  present  help,  one  treats  a  miracle  of  healing  as  a 
15  221 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

spiritual  type.  Not  one  has  for  its  topic  Jesus's  life 
activities  objectively  considered.  His  life  was  cer- 
tainly not  devoid  of  stirring  action,  or  of  deeds  fit 
to  inspire  poetic  eulogy.  Why,  then,  are  his  passive 
virtues  almost  the  only  ones  to  be  noticed  ?  Doubt- 
less because  the  mind  of  the  Church,  through  his- 
torical causes  yet  to  be  named,  has  never  fully 
awaked  to  see  the  breadth  of  that  which  constitutes 
the  divine-human  life. 

Again,  this  Hymnal  contains  345  hymns  on  the 
general  topic  of  the  Christian,  but  only  47,  or  less 
than  one  in  seven,  treats  of  Christian  activity.  This 
is  surely  significant,  but  it  is  far  from  being  the  end 
of  the  matter.  For  Christian  activity  can  be  con- 
sidered in  either  one  of  two  ways :  we  may  fix  our 
thought  upon  the  thing  to  be  done,  or  upon  the 
feelings  that  accompany  the  doing  of  it.  We  may 
assume  the  standpoint  of  the  Epistle  of  James,  or 
that  of  the  First  Epistle  of  John.  Take,  for  ex- 
ample, this  stanza  of  Henry  Alford's  hymn,  "For- 
ward !  be  our  watchword,"  and  notice  how  the  atten- 
tion is  directed  to  the  contemplated  act : 

"  Forward  !  flock  of  Jesus, 

Salt  of  all  the  earth, 
Till  each  yearning  purpose 

Spring  to  glorious  birth  : 
Sick,  they  ask  for  healing  ; 

Blind,  they  grope  for  day; 
Pour  upon  the  nations 

Wisdom's  loving  ray. 


222 


SPIRITUALITY 

Forward,  out  of  error, 

Leave  behind  the  night ; 
Forward  through  the  darkness, 

Forward  into  light ! " 

This  stanza  does  not  lack  feeling,  but  never  once 
does  the  feeling  become  the  object  thought  about 
or  aimed  at. 

Compare  with  this  Watts's  hymn,  "Am  I  a  soldier 
of  the  cross?"  This  also  is  a  hymn  of  Christian 
activity,  but  the  attention  is  turned  in  just  the  op- 
posite direction — to  the  fears,  the  blushes,  the  cour- 
age that  is  needed ;  to  bearing  the  toil,  enduring  the 
pain;  to  the  foretaste  of  victory  even  in  the  midst 
of  the  fight.  The  battle  of  faith  is  looked  at  solely 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  fighter's  feelings,  and 
not  a  word  is  breathed  about  the  aims  which  Chris- 
tian warfare  seeks  to  accomplish.  The  subjective, 
introspective  mood  is  all-controlling. 

The  same  attitude  is,  if  possible,  even  more  vivid- 
ly revealed  in  several  of  Charles  Wesley's  hymns  of  i 
Christian  activity,  as,   for  instance,  "A  charge  to/' 
keep  I  have."     Another  excellent  example  may  be 
found  in  his  hymn,  "Lo !  I  come  with  joy :" 

"  Lo !  I  come  with  joy  to  do 

The  Master's  blessed  will ; 
Him  in  outward  works  pursue, 

And  serve  his  pleasure  still. 
Faithful  to  my  Lord's  commands, 

I  still  would  choose  the  better  part, 
Serve  with  careful  Martha's  hands, 

And  loving  Mary's  heart. 

223 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

Careful,  without  care  I  am, 

Nor  feel  my  happy  toil, 
Kept  in  peace  by  Jesus'  name, 

Supported  by  his  smile." 

Perhaps  the  best  example  of  all  is  the  fourth  stanza 
of  his  hymn,  "Son  of  the  carpenter,  receive:" 

4 '  Careless  through  outward  cares  I  go, 

From  all  distraction  free  : 
My  hands  are  but  engaged  below, 

My  heart  is  still  with  thee." 

In  this  entire  group  of  hymns  the  attention  is  di- 
rected, you  perceive,  not  at  all  to  the  specific  end  in 
view,  nor  to  the  specific  means  of  attaining  it,  but 
to  the  feelings  that  one  may  experience  in  connection 
with  unspecified  activities  and  difficulties. 

Once  more  permit  the  remark  that  the  antithesis 
here  pointed  out  is  not  to  the  discredit  of  these  in- 
trospective, subjective  expressions  of  religious  ac- 
tivity. Many  of  them  are  beautiful,  inspiring,  and 
fit  to  be  sung  forever.  This  is  one  perfectly  legiti- 
mate side  of  religious  sentiment.  But  it  is  only  one 
side,  and  that  is  the  whole  point — unless  one  should 
find  also  that  thinking  of  one's  fetlings  is  an  easy 
road  to  a  selfish,  unsocial,  and  hence  unchristian 
view  of  life.  One  thing,  at  least,  ought  to  be  clear, 
and  that  is  that  the  sentiments  natural  to  the  more 
objective,  self-forgetting  attitude  demand  utterance 
fully  as  much  as  those  just  described. 

It  is  therefore  somewhat  remarkable  to  find  that 

of  the  entire  47  hymns  on  Christian  activity,  32 

224 


SPIRITUALITY 

treat  their  theme  in  a  purely  subjective  way,  only  9 
in  a  purely  objective  way,  while  6  are  mixed  or  in- 
determinate. 

Again,  this  Hymnal  contains  182  hymns  on  the 
Church,  of  which  only  89,  or  a  trifle  less  than  one 
half,  have  to  do  with  any  species  of  Church  work. 
These  89  are  divided  about  equally  among  the  fol- 
lowing subjects :  Erection  of  Churches,  Children 
and  Youth,  Charities  and  Reforms,  and  Missions. 
It  is,  naturally,  less  easy  to  follow  the  cleavage  plane 
between  the  subjective  and  the  objective  mood 
through  these  topics  than  through  that  of  Christian 
activity.  Erection  of  Churches,  and  Missions, 
moreover,  present  clear  objective  images  for  con- 
templation. The  objective  attitude  could  scarcely 
be  escaped.  The  test  comes  when  the  topic  concerns 
our  own  present  life  in  the  world ;  hence  particularly 
with  the  hymns  on  Charities  and  Reforms.  Of  the 
1 8  hymns  in  this  group  only  8  are  clearly  of  the 
objective  variety. 

Putting  together  the  results  of  examining  these 
various  sets  of  hymns,  we  have  a  striking  exhibit: 
Number  of  hymns  in  the  entire  collection.  ...  1,117 
Number  of  hymns  on  Christ,  the  Christian, 

and  the  Church 608 

On  Life  and  Character  of  Christ,  Christian 

Activity,  and  Church  Work 144 

On  the  Life  Activities  of  Christ,  Christian 

Activity,   and   Charities  and   Reforms,   all 

objectively  viewed t 17 

225 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

In  other  words,  less  than  twenty-four  per  cent  of 
the  hymns  on  Christ,  the  Christian,  and  the  Church 
have  to  do  with  the  life  and  character  of  Christ, 
Christian  activity,  and  Church  work.  Again,  less 
than  three  per  cent  of  the  said  hymns  on  Christ, 
Christian,  and  Church  treat  of  the  life  activities  of 
Christ,  Christian  actiyity,  and  charities  and  reforms 
in  an  objective  spiriti  Finally,  it  follows  that,  of  the 
entire  collection,  only  about  one  and  a  half  per  cent 
take  up  the  practical  problems  of  the  everyday  ac-  J 
tivities  of  the  adult  Christian  in  this  spirit.J 

It  is  not  necessary  to  suspect  that  falsehood  has 
crept  into  the  ideals  of  life  here  presented  except 
as  one-sidedness  implies  partial  truth.  Far  be  it 
from  me  to  discourage  the  singing  of  the  tender  and 
noble  sentiments  that  assuage  the  griefs  of  life  and 
lighten  its  burdens.  Yet  it  would  be  folly  to  ignore  •• 
the  existence  of  many  Christians  whose  deepest  soul  | 
remains  unuttered  even  through  these  beautiful 
products  of  the  subjective  mood.  Without  doubt 
many  persons  can  actually  feel  with  Charles  Wesley 
that  only  the  hands  are  engaged  below,  while  the 
heart  is  elsewhere ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are 
men,  and  not  a  few  of  them,  whose  hearts  go  into 
their  earthly  work  with  their  hands.  These  are  1 
particularly  the  persons  whose  temperament  we  de- 
scribe as  choleric.  They  are  less  interested  in  how 
their  surroundings  impress  them  than  in  controlling 

those  surroundings;  they  are  not  without  feeling, 

226 


SPIRITUALITY 

but  their  primary  need  is  for  action,  and  their  char- 
acteristic feelings  are  the  desires  and  enthusiasms, 
disappointments  and  joys  of  intense  purpose;  they 
are  eager,  earnest,  persistent ;  they  think  of  the  pres- 
ent rather  than  of  the  future,  of  the  near  rather  than 
of  the  remote;  and  their  glance  is  outward  rather 
than  inward.  The  mind  of  such  a  person  is  taken 
up  with  the  thought  of  ends  and  of  means;  upon 
these  his  feelings  as  well  as  his  tongue  and  his 
hands  fix  themselves.  His  happiness  lies  not  in 
tranquillity,  not  in  contemplation  of  heaven  or  of 
the  privileges  of  the  Gospel,  but  rather  in  seeing 
things  move.  Now,  while  this  type  of  mind  needs, 
perhaps,  to  be  turned  in  upon  itself  now  and  then,  it 
also  needs  self-expression  which  the  vast  majority 
of  the  hymns  referred  to  cannot  provide.  These 
hymns  appeal  rather  to  the  melancholic  tempera- 
ment, which  is  given  to  feeling  rather  than  to  action, 
to  contemplation  of  ideals  rather  than  of  means  and 
ends,  to  future  rather  than  present  good,  and  to  sub- 
jective rather  than  to  objective  standards  for  the 
measurement  of  values. 

Without  undertaking  the  ungracious  as  well  as 
ungrateful  task  of  dictating  inspirations  to  poets, 
we  may,  nevertheless,  venture  to  describe  a  need  in 
hymnology.  For,  assuredly,  poetry  does  enter  into 
the  dynamics  of  our  life,  and  why  should  it  not  add 
its  power  to  whatever  in  life  is  worth  striving  for? 

Truth  and  goodness  and  beauty  can  never  be  so 

227 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

separated  in  reality  as  to  make  art  entirely  superflu- 
ous at  any  point.  Our  greatest  present  unfulfilled 
need  seems  to  be  poems  of  social  goodness.  Un- 
derstanding religion  to  be  essentially  love  to  God 
and  love  to  man,  and  understanding  love  to  be  a 
matter  of  the  will  as  well  as  of  sentiment — the  basis  f 
of  the  family  and  of  society — we  may  say  that  we 
need  the  dynamics  of  a  poetry  of  active  love.  And^ 
this  in  no  narrow  sense,  such,  for  instance,  as  is  con- 
noted by  the  traditional  use  of  the  term  "charity." 
For  the  immanence  of  God  in  the  whole  of  nature 
and  of  human  life,  together  with  the  supremacy — 
nay,  adequacy — of  love  as  a  motive  for  life  in  all  its 
ramifications,  lifts  the  whole  of  life  out  of  the  dust 
and  into  the  clear  air  and  sunlight  of  beauty.  One 
can  even  find  it  in  one's  heart  to  sympathize  with 
eccentric  Professor  Blackie,  who  sings  to  God  as  the 
God  of  glee.1  Much  more,  then,  is  it  true 

"  That,  in  a  world,  made  for  whatever  else, 
Not  made  for  mere  enjoyment — in  a  world 
Of  toil  but  half-requited,  or,  at  best, 
Paid  in  some  futile  currency  of  breath,"9 

we  need  the  voice  of  song  to  transfigure  all  into  that 
beauty  which  is  the  truth  of  things.  We  need  songs 
ad  rein,  infusing  love — the  interpreter,  the  fulfiller 
of  the  law — into  the  occupations  of  hand  and  of 
brain.  Indeed,  when  we  learn  what  it  means  to  do 
all  to  the  glory  of  God  will  not  the  consciousness 

»  Songs  of  Religion  and  Life,  New  York,  1876, 60. 
« Lowell,  "The  Cathedral." 
228 


SPIRITUALITY 

of  the  divine  presence  inevitably  break  forth  into 
song? 

The  Spirituality  of  Prayer-Meeting  Songs. 

If  we  turn,  now,  from  the  recognized  hymns  to 
the  popular  revival,  prayer-meeting,  and  Sunday- 
school  songs,  we  shall  find  a  slightly  different  species 
of  one-sidedness.  Feeling  is  still  in  the  ascendency, 
but  it  is  of  a  mobile  and  superficial  kind.  There  is 
nothing  of  the  profound  emotion  and  stately  move- 
ment of  the  standard  hymns.  The  water  is  shallow, 
and  light  and  shifty  winds  raise  ripples  everywhere 
upon  its  surface.  I  speak  now  particularly  of  the 
psychological  effect  of  the  musical  compositions. 
Instead  of  the  solemn  procession  of  those  who  as- 
cend into  the  hill  of  the  Lord,  to  stand  in  his  holy 
place,  we  have  a  mere  hop,  skip,  and  jump,  or  a 
game  of  tag.  The  thought  is  equally  weak  and 
disconnected.  There  is  no  foresight,  hindsight,  or 
proportion,  and  no  sense  of  consistency.  What  is 
intended  for  thought  is  a  mere  jumble  of  pious 
ideas.  The  composition  of  the  verse  corresponds. 
It  is  purely  mechanical.  Meter  is  held  in  light  es- 
teem, and  any  crime  against  sense  or  syntax  is  com- 
mitted for  the  sake  of  making  rhymes. 

Here  and  there  in  these  popular  collections  are 
songs  worthy  of  better  company,  but  the  class  as  a 
whole  tends  to  the  type  just  described.  As  an  ex- 
ample, I  will  take,  not  the  worst,  but  the  best,  of 

229 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

the  recent  revival  songs  that  have  come  to  my  at- 
tention— "Let  Him  In:" 

44  There's  a  stranger  at  the  door, 
He  has  been  there  oft  before ; 
Let  him  in  ere  he  is  gone, 
Let  him  in,  the  Holy  One, 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Father's  Son. 

"  Open  now  to  him  your  heart; 
If  you  wait  he  will  depart. 
Let  him  in,  he  is  your  friend, 
He  your  soul  will  sure  defend, 
He  will  keep  you  to  the  end. 

"  Hear  you  now  his  loving  voice, 
Now,  O,  now  make  him  your  choice ; 
He  is  standing  at  the  door, 
Joy  to  you  he  will  restore, 
And  his  name  you  will  adore. 

*'  Now  admit  the  heavenly  Guest, 
He  will  make  for  you  a  feast. 
He  will  speak  your  sins  forgiven, 
And  when  earth  ties  all  are  riven, 
He  will  take  you  home  to  heaven." 

You  perceive  that  the  thought  and  composition, 
especially  after  the  first  stanza,  are  decidedly  patchy. 
With  the  omission  of  two  "ands,"  the  second,  third, 
and  fourth  stanzas  could  be  read  in  the  inverse  order 
of  the  lines  as  well  as  in  the  order  given.  More  than 
that,  leaving  out  the  last  two  lines — the  only  ones 
having  any  obvious  rhetorical  connection — we  could 
take  the  remainder,  write  one  line  on  each  of  thir- 
teen slips  of  paper,  shake  the  slips  in  a  hat,  draw 
them  out  indiscriminately,  and,  taking  them  in  the 

new  order,  have  nearly,  if  not  quite,  as  good  a  poem 

230 


SPIRITUALITY 

as  the  one  before  us.  And  yet  this  composition  is 
probably  less  open  to  serious  objection  than  the 
majority  of  the  songs  of  its  class. 

This  analysis  has  been  made,  not  in  the  interest 
of  art,  whether  musical  or  rhetorical,  nor  even  in 
the  interest  of  logic,  but  solely  to  raise  the  question 
whether  these  popular  sacred  songs  do  not  express 
and  appeal  to  a  particular  temperament  rather  than  1 
to  the  heart  of  humanity  as  a  whole.     Surely  only  | 
a  fraction  of  those  who  need  comfort,  inspiration, 
or  conversion  can  respond  to  such  invitations  as  that 
just  analyzed,  and  yet  this  is  the  kind  with  which 
we  are  trying  to  draw  the  whole  world  to  Christ. 

Lotze  has  called  attention  to  a  parallel  between 
the  four  temperaments  and  four  ages  of  man's  life. 
The  sanguine  temperament,  he  says,  corresponds  to 
childhood,  the  melancholic  (which  he  calls  the  sen- 
timental) to  youth,  the  choleric  to  maturity,  and  the 
phlegmatic  to  old  age.  We  have  just  seen  that  the 
tendency  of  too  many  of  the  standard  hymns  of  the 
Church  is  to  express  the  sentimental  temperament. 
It  is  now  even  more  obvious  that  our  popular 
revival  songs  correspond  to  the  sanguine  tem- 
perament. The  sanguine  personality  is  character- 
ized less  by  depth  of  feeling  than  by  ready  response 
to  every  kind  of  impression.  Rapid  changes  from 
one  mood  or  activity  to  another  are  common.  Im- 
pressions predominate  over  action.  The  sanguine 

person  lives  in  the  present  rather  than  the  future, 

231 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

and  tends  to  cheerful  rather  than  to  serious  moods. 
Now,  do  you  not  see  that  these  traits  exactly  de- 
scribe the  songs  in  question  ?  They  are  mere  fleeting 
impressions,  and  lack  continuity  and  consistency. 
In  other  words,  they  tend  toward  childishness. 

Popular  Notions  of  Spirituality. 

In  order  to  pursue  still  further  the  hypothesis  that 
a  certain  psychological  one-sidedness  pervades  much 
of  what  is  called  spiritual  life,  I  have  undertaken  to 
make  a  direct  analysis  of  the  notions  of  spirituality 
entertained  by  a  considerable  group  of  persons.  To 
a  large  class  of  college  students,  chiefly  seniors,  I 
made  the  following  oral  requests:  "First,  think  of 
some  one  whom  you  would  call  spiritual  in  the  re- 
ligious sense.  Let  it  not  be  Christ  or  one  of  the 
apostles.  Then  [after  a  pause],  write  down,  with- 
out revision  or  criticism,  what  it  was  in  that  person 
that  seemed  to  show  his  spirituality." 

The  exercise  was  entirely  impromptu,  and  the 
whole  process  consumed  only  a  few  minutes.  The 
purpose  of  the  exercise  was  to  get  at  the  actual 
working  notions  of  spirituality  rather  than  at  .the- 
ories of  what  ought  to  be  called  by  that  name. 
Hence  a  concrete  object  was  brought  before  the 
mind,  and  the  first  impression  was  recorded. 
Seventy  papers  were  received,  but  enough  of  them 
named  more  than  one  quality  to  raise  the  number 

of  specifications  to  109.    We  have,  then,  109  speci- 

232 


SPIRITUALITY 

fications  of  what  is  spontaneously  looked  upon  as 
constituting  spirituality  by  70  college  students.  The 
qualities  specified  and  the  number  of  times  each  was 
named  may  be  exhibited  as  follows : 

1.  The  physical  man,  such  as  Christlike  face, 

shining  face,  eyes  that  seem  to  see  things 
not  of  this  world,  etc 9 

2.  Otherworldliness,  such  as  not  of  this  world, 

given  up  the  world,  absorbed  in  God, 
thinking  of  life  to  come,  etc 7 

3.  Passive  virtues,  such  as  gentleness,  peace, 

even    temper,    meekness,    humility,    pa- 
tience, trust,  cheerfulness 1 1 

4.  Communion   with   the   divine,    living   near 

God,  thinking  about  God,  reverence. ...     6 

5.  Religious  exercises,  such  as  faith  in  prayer, 

delight   in   prayer,    interest   in   spiritual 
things  or  in  religious  exercises 9 

6.  Beautiful   personality,    beautiful    character, 

Christlike  spirit 3 

7.  Scattering :  love  of  nature,  love  of  Bible,  fer- 

vor of  religious  feeling,  excessively  con- 
scientious         4 

8.  Social  feeling  and  activity,  such  as  unselfish- 

ness, living  for  others,  sympathy,  chari- 
table, kind,  influence  for  good 24 

9.  Daily  life,  consistent  Christian  living 7 

10.  Truthfulness,   sincerity,  hatred  for  wrong, 

ideal  conception  of  character,  high  char- 
acter, something  that  attracted  one ....      6 

11.  Fidelity  to  duty,  loyalty  to  God,  sense  of 

duty,  earnestness  in  religious  work  or  in 

everything   9 

233 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

12.  Religious  work,  such  as  evangelistic  effort, 

speaks  of  religious  things,  exhorts 
others,  enthusiastic  in  religious  work ...  9 

13.  Intellectual  qualities,  such  as  broad  and  just 

views,  a  man  of  culture  and  a  seer,  sim- 
ple, yet  had  great  mind,  superstitious, 
narrow-minded,  self-centered  5 

The  largest  single  group  in  this  list  is  that  of 
social  feelings  and  activities.     This  is,  doubtless,  a 
sign  of  a  healthful  trend  of  thought  in  our  colleges. 
Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  the  proportion  in  which 
social  virtues  here  come  to  recognition  is  not  what 
we  should  expect  from  persons  who  have  learned 
from  Him  who  revealed  to  us  the  meaning  of  life 
as  summed  up  in  love.     It  will  be  noticed  that  the 
first  seven  groups  in  the  table  form  one  consistent 
set,  while  the  remaining  groups  form  another  and  | 
contrasting  set.    In  the  former  we  have  otherworld-   I 
liness,  passive  virtues,  the  contemplative  life,  and  ; 
spiritual  exercises.     In  the  latter  the  altruistic  feel-  < 
ings,  the  active  virtues,  and  intellectual  qualities  are » 
gathered   together.     The   former   set   contains   49 
specifications,  the  latter  60.     In  all  probability  the 
proportions   would  be  changed  if  we  could  only 
know  what  was  in  the  minds  of  writers  who  men- 
tioned religious  work,  enthusiasm  in  religious  work, 
speaking  of  religious  things,  exhorting,  etc.    These 
expressions  may  represent  the  active  life  less  than 

they  do  emotion  and  contemplation.     Yet  even  as 

234 


SPIRITUALITY 

the  two  sets  of  groups  stand  they  reveal  an  interest- 
ing state  of  the  popular  mind.  Here  are  seventy 
young  persons  who  have  drunk  not  merely  of  the 
average  religious  teaching,  but  also  of  the  newer 
spirit  which  puts  emphasis  upon  the  social  virtues; 
yet  it  appears  probable  that,  for  every  six  times  that 
these  persons  think  of  either  the  altruistic  feelings, 
the  active  virtues,  or  intellectual  qualities  as  con- 
stitutive of  spirituality,  they  think  of  something 
negative,  passive,  introspective,  or  private  five 
times. 

Furthermore,  of  the  70  papers,  24  mentioned  not 
one  of  the  altruistic,  active,  or  intellectual  qualities. 
When  we  realize  that  under  these  three  terms  are 
included  not  only  what  is  sometimes  called  mere 
morality,  etc.,  but  also  religious  work,  kindness, 
sincerity,  consistency,  sense  of  duty,  and  even  in- 
fluence for  good,  the  result  becomes  little  less  than 
astounding. 

It  will  be  recalled  that  the  directions  to  -the  writers 
of  these  papers  were  to  think  of  some  spiritual  per- 
son and  then  name  the  quality  in  which  the  spiritual- 
ity manifested  itself.  A  third  request  was  to  say 
whether  the  spiritual  person  thought  about  was  a 
man  or  a  woman.  Of  the  70  writers,  36  were  men 
and  34  women.  But  40  of  the  writers  thought  of  a 
woman,  and  only  30  of  a  man,  as  a  type  of  spirit- 
uality. The  distribution  of  the  answers  is  as  follows: 
Of  the  36  men  returning  answers,  21  thought  of  a 

235 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

man,  and  15  of  a  woman.  Of  the  34  women  re- 
turning answers,  9  thought  of  a  man,  and  25  of  a 
woman.  Thus  there  appears  to  be  a  clear  tendency 
for  the  men  to  think  of  a  man  as  representing  spirit- 
uality, but  a  much  more  pronounced  tendency  for 
women  to  think  of  a  woman.  This  may  or  may  not 
be  very  significant,  for  the  number  examined  is  too 
small  to  base  a  generalization  upon.  But  it  at  least 
suggests  a  most  significant  question,  that  of  the  re- 
lation of  masculine  to  feminine  qualities  in  Church 
life  and  Church  ideals. 

The  "Eternally  Feminine"  in  the  Church. 

It  has  not  escaped  popular  observation  that  there 
is  some  sort  of  difference  between  the  religious  life 
characteristic  of  women  and  that  characteristic  of 
men.  Women  are  commonly  said  to  be  more  re- 
ligious than  men,  but  I  think  it  can  be  shown  that 
the  real  difference  is  less  in  the  degree  of  religious- 
ness than  in  the  general  make-up  of  the  mind.  Sex 
is  certainly  a  fact  of  mental  as  well  as  of  physical 
constitution,  and  the  mental  peculiarities  of  each 
sex  naturally  and  necessarily  appear  in  religion  as 
well  as  elsewhere.  Two  of  the  best  established 
general  differences  between  the  male  and  the  female 
mind  are  these:  first,  the  female  mind  tends  more 
than  the  male  to  feeling;  and,  second,  it  is  more 
suggestible.1 

*  Havelock  Ellis,  Man  and  Womnn,  London,  1898,  chaps,  xii,  xiii. 
236 


SpIkltUALltY 

Granted  that  this  generalization  is  correct,  what 
religious  differences  should  we  expect  to  find  be- 
tween the  sexes?  We  should  expect  that  women 
brought  up  under  continuous  religious  incitement 
and  suggestion  would  exhibit  greater  continuity  in 
religious  feeling  and  less  tendency  to  pass  through 
religious  crises.  And  this  is,  in  fact,  what  we  ap- 
pear to  discover.  With  men  religion  tends  more 
to  focus  itself  into  intense  crises.  Women  yield 
sooner  and  show  more  placid  progress,  while  men 
pass  through  more  definite  periods  of  awakening. 

One  of  the  very  striking  things  about  the  reli- 
gious autobiographies  presented  to  me  is  that,  while 
religion  seems  to  be  a  sort  of  atmosphere  in  the 
life  of  women — something  all-pervasive  and  easily 
taken  for  granted — with  the  men  it  is  more  sharply 
defined,  brings  greater  struggles,  and  tends  more  to 
climacteric  periods.  Men  are  more  likely  than 
women,  it  appears,  to  resist  certain  religious  tend- 
encies up  to  the  point  of  explosion. 

The  following  facts  gathered  by  Starbuck  illus- 
trate this  general  view :  The  storm  and  stress 
period,  the  period  of  doubt,  struggle,  etc.,  is  of 
shorter  duration  with  women  than  with  men.1 
Again,  men  display  more  friction  against  surround- 
ings, more  difficulty  with  points  of  belief,2  more 
doubt  arising  from  educational  influences,3  more 

1  Growth,  American  Journal  of  Psychology ;  ix,  84. 
» Ibid. ,  Table  V.  8  Ibid.,  Table  VI. 

16  237 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

readiness  to  question  traditional  beliefs  and  cus- 
toms,1 more  pronounced  tendency  to  resist  convic- 
tion, to  pray,  to  call  on  God,  to  lose  sleep  and  appe- 
tite— in  a  word,  to  experience  the  more  turbulent 
manifestations.  Women,  on  the  other  hand,  show 
greater  tendency  to  the  less  intense  emotions,  such 
as  depression,  sadness,  meditativeness,  humility, 
sense  of  helplessness.2  Again,  among  Starbuck's 
cases,  twice  as  large  a  proportion  of  men  as  of 
women  were  converted  at  home,  and  generally 
alone,  while  six  times  as  many  women  as  men  were 
converted  at  the  regular  church  services.  This 
shows  the  greater  dependence  of  women  upon  ex- 
ternal suggestion.3  Furthermore,  the  disturbances 
are  greater  for  the  women  in  the  nonrevival  cases, 
in  which  external  suggestion  is  relatively  lacking, 
but  for  the  men  in  the  revival  cases,  in  which 
it  is  most  abundant.4  Thus  women  go  more 
easily  with  the  tide,  while  with  men  questions  of 
religion  go  deeper — more  deeply,  that  is,  into  the 
region  of  clear  self-consciousness,  decision,  initia- 
tive.5 Finally,  men  tend  more  than  women  to  re- 
gard forgiveness  and  divine  aid  as  central  in  their  k 
conversion.6 

From  the  cases  I  have  myself  examined  I  am  able 
to  add  some  further  facts.     Thus,  while  the  two 

1  Growth,  Table  VII,  American  Journal of  'Psychology \  ix. 
8  Conversion,  Table  V,  American  Journal of  'Psychology •,  viii. 
«  Ibid.%  Table  I.  4  Ibid.,  Table  V.    Comp.  Growth,  Table  V. 

6 16id.t  Table  VII.  6  Ibid.,  Table  VI. 

238 


SPIRITUALITY 

sexes  report  practical  doubts — that  is,  doubts  of 
their  personal  religious  status — in  about  the  same 
proportions,  more  than  twice  as  many  men  as 
women  report  theoretical  doubts — that  is,  doubts 
concerning  doctrines.  Again,  among  those  who 
definitely  sought  for  a  striking  transformation,  the 
proportion  of  those  whose  expectation  was  com- 
pletely satisfied  is  decidedly  greater  among  the 
women  than  among  the  men.  Once  more,  in  re- 
sponse to  a  question  as  to  what  was  found  perma- 
nent in  their  religious  experience,  nearly  every 
woman  who  gave  an  answer  mentioned  some  kind 
of  satisfactory  feeling,  while  less  than  half  of  the 
men  did  so.  Moreover,  men  were  alone  in  men- 
tioning forgiveness  or  anything  connected  with  it, 
and  almost  alone  in  mentioning  anything  connected 
with  right  or  wrong.1 

All  this  goes  to  show  that  women  respond  to  re- 
ligion more  feelingly,  and  in  some  respects  more 
continuously,  but  men  more  energetically  and  with  a 
higher  potential  of  self-conscious  reflection  and 
choice.  With  women  religion  is  more  like  the  in- 
tuitive tact  that  helps  them  so  much  in  all  the  rela- 
tions of  life;  with  men  it  requires  the  clumsier 
instruments  of  deliberation.  Any  attempt,  there- 
fore, to  determine  which  sex  is  the  more  religious 
would  simply  end  in  a  dispute  as  to  the  relative 
rank  of  different  sets  of  faculties. 

1  See  pp.  252f. 
239 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 


Our  results  may  be  summarized  and  exhibited  as 
follows : 

RELIGIOUS     TRAITS     OF     MEN     AND     OF     WOMEN 
COMPARED. 


Men. 


Women. 


Intellect  more  prominent ;  hence,  more 
theoretical  doubts. 


Emotion  focuses  on  definite  objects  and 
at  definite  periods  ;  hence,  more  tur- 
bulent. 

Less  suggestible,  resist  more,  have  more 
intense  struggle,  and  less  fulfillment 
of  expectation.  Attain  more  in  soli- 
tude. 

Active  virtues  more  prominent. 


Sensibility  more  prominent ;  hence, 
doubts  of  personal  status,  but  rela- 
tively few  theoretical  doubts. 

Emotion  more  constant,  more  diffused, 
more  gentle. 


More  suggestible  ;  yield  more  readily  to 
ordinary  influences;  attain  less  in 
solitude  ;  have  less  intense  struggle, 
and  more  fulfillment  of  expectation. 

Passive  virtues  more  prominent. 


It  should  be  said  that  the  evidence  for  this  con- 
clusion rests  not  merely  upon  the  relatively  few 
cases  that  I  have  examined,  but  upon  all  the  results 
thus  far  gathered  in  this  particular  field.  The 
strength  of  the  conclusion  lies  in  the  fact  that  all 
lines  of  investigation  converge  upon  the  same  point. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know,  if  possible,  just 
what  psychical  forces,  as  distinguished  from  doc- 
trinal reasonings,  have  given  the  Virgin  Mary  the 
place  she  holds  in  the  worship  of  Christendom.  In 
any  case,  we  shall  not  go  far  astray  by  assuming 
that  Mariolatry  is,  among  other  things,  an  effort  to 
provide  in  the  object  worshiped  certain  gentler  qual- 
ities that  are  more  characteristic  of  the  female  sex 
than  of  the  male.  The  same  impulse  has  led  re- 
ligious persons  here  and  there,  and  occasionally  a 

240 


SPIRITUALITY 

whole  sect,  to  teach  the  doctrine  of  the  motherhood 
as  well  as  fatherhood  of  God.  These  gentler  quali- 
ties we  may,  for  convenience'  sake,  designate  under 
the  single  term  "compassion." 

There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  act  of  wor- 
ship, on  the  part  of  imperfect  creatures  like  our- 
selves, requires  for  its  highest  perfection  some  con- 
ception or  sense  of  compassion  felt  by  God  toward 
his  worshiper.  When  Spinoza  proposed  a  kind  of 
love  for  God  that  made  no  demands  upon  God  for  a 
sympathetic  response  he  proposed  something  that 
has  never  met  the  needs  of  man  and  never  can  meet 
them.  We  may,  indeed,  assert,  and  glory  in  the 
assertion,  that  Christianity  has  brought  into  wor- 
ship and  religious  life  generally  a  feminine  element. 

But  when  this  instinctive  demand  of  human  na- 
ture, instead  of  expressing  itself  as  Jesus  expressed 
it,  sought  satisfaction  in  the  worship  of  Mary 
normal  proportions  were  destroyed.  Feminine 
qualities  came  to  outweigh  the  masculine  in  the  pre- 
vailing conception  of  divinity,  and,  of  course,  femi- 
nine virtues  came  to  outweigh  masculine  in  the 
Church's  ideal  of  the  good  life. 

Nor  has  Protestantism  wholly  cleared  itself  from 
this  moral  obscuration.  In  theory  we  reject  the 
worship  of  Mary ;  but  in  practice  do  we  not  still  hold 
the  passive  virtues  in  disproportionate  esteem?  I 
am  inclined  to  think  that  Romanes  did  not  belie  the 

common  thought  when  he  wrote  these  words :  "But 

241 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

when  the  ideal  was  changed  by  Christ — when  the 
highest  place  in  the  hierarchy  of  the  virtues  was 
assigned  to  faith,  hope,  and  charity,  to  piety,  pa- 
tience, and  long-suffering,  to  forgiveness,  self-denial, 
and  even  self-abasement — we  cannot  wonder  that, 
in  so  extraordinary  a  collision  between  the  ideals  of 
virtue,  it  should  have  been  the  women  who  first 
flocked  in  numbers  around  the  standard  of  the 
cross."  "The  whole  organization  of  woman  is 
formed  on  a  plan  of  greater  delicacy,  and  her  mental 
structure  is  correspondingly  more  refined;  it  is 
further  removed  from  the  struggling  instincts  of  the 
lower  animals,  and  thus  more  nearly  approaches  our 
conception  of  the  spiritual."1  It  is  the  same  under- 
standing, or  rather  misunderstanding,  of  the  round 
sphere  of  Christian  principle  that  induces  Brinton  to 
define  the  cardinal  principle  of  the  Christian  faith  as 
"the  holiness  of  suffering  and  self-abnegation."2 

That  this  feminine  element  has  an  essential  part 
in  the  Christian  ideal  of  life  is  one  of  the  glories  of 
Christianity.  A  feminine  element  is  as  necessary 
to  religion  as  woman  is  to  the  life  of  the  species. 
But,  in  the  spiritual  as  in  the  natural  realm,  what- 
ever tends  to  isolate  this  element  tends  also  to  make 
it  barren  and  unfruitful.  Neither  the  man  alone 
nor  the  woman  alone  is  a  perfect  type,  but  rather  the 
family,  in  which  the  two  complementary  qualities 

1  "  Mental  Differences  between  Men  and  Women,"  in  Essays,  London  and  Nevtf 
York,  1897,  123,  125 ;  also  in  Nineteenth  Century  for  M?y,  1887. 
a  Religions  of  Primitive  Peoples,  New  York,  1898,  181. 
242 


SPIRITUALITY 

are  balanced  the  one  over  against  the  other.  The 
practical  question  that  results  from  this  view  is 
whether  the  Church  is  to  be  simply  a  Sister  of  Mercy 
or  preferably  a  family.  Is  its  mission  any  more 
that  of  sympathy,  or  even  of  salvation  in  the  nar- 
rower sense  of  this  term,  than  it  is  such  active  par- 
ticipation in  the  world's  work  as  shall  constitute 
the  whole  of  human  life  an  incarnation  of  the 
divine?  And  our  saints — are  they  to  be  distin- 
guished from  other  human  beings  by  sex  and  tem- 
perament, or  by  something  more  divine  ? 

Some  Results  of  a  Temperamental  Interpretation 

of  Christianity. 

Including  under  the  one  convenient  term  "tem- 
perament" all  the  differences  of  sex  and  individu- 
ality discussed  in  this  chapter,  we  may  now  ask 
whether  the  proposition  with  which  we  started  has 
not  been  abundantly  made  out — the  proposition, 
namely,  that  Jesus'  simple  and  universally  human^ 
conception  of  spiritual  life  has  been  warped  into 
particular  temperamental  forms  in  organized  Chris-, 
tianity.  This  has  been  shown  by  an  analysis  of 
sainthood  as  traditionally  understood;  of  prevalent 
spiritual  exercises;  of  our  hymns  and  songs;  of 
popular  conceptions  of  spirituality,  and,  finally,  of 
the  historical  influence  of  Mariolatry.  The  conclu- 
sion upon  which  all  these  diverse  lines  of  investi- 
gation converge  is  that  organized  Christianity  in 

243  .      v 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

general,  Protestant  as  well  as  Catholic,  places  insuf- 
ficient value  upon  the  more  masculine,  active,  or 
practical  qualities  of  goodness;  or,  to  speak  in  di- 
rectly psychological  terms,  that  the  forms  of  reli- 
gious life  natural  to  the  choleric  temperament  are 
habitually  discounted  in  favor  of  those  natural  to] 
the  sanguine  and  melancholic  temperaments,  par-] 
ticularly  the  latter. 

The  results,  which  are  at  the  same  time  a  part  of 
the  evidence  that  the  diagnosis  is  accurate,  are  com- 
prised in  the  group  of  facts  presented  again  and 
again  as  churchmen  have  asked  whether  the  Church 
of  to-day  can  yet  adjust  itself  to  modern  life.  There 
is,  in  the  first  place,  the  much-deplored  dispropor-  \ 
tion  of  the  sexes  in  our  Church  life.  It  is  due,  very 
likely,  to  several  causes.  It  may  be  said,  for  in- 
stance, that  men,  since  they  are  under  greater  indus- 
trial and  economic  pressure  than  women,  have  less 
time  for  worship  and  other  religious  exercises.  But, 
even  if  this  is  so,  we  may  yet  be  confident  that  a 
demand  of  our  nature  as  profound  as  the  religious 
instinct  is  never  balked  merely  by  lack  of  time  for 
indulging  it.  Hungry  men  will  take  time  or  make 
time  to  eat.  These  very  men  who  feel  the  pressure 
of  life's  conflict  find  time  for  many  things  outside 
of  business.  Witness,  for  example,  the  luxuriant 
growth  of  clubs,  mutual  benefit  insurance  societies, 
secret  orders,  and  other  social  agencies,  at  the  very 

time  when  it  is  so  hard  to  get  men  to  go  to  church. 

244 


SPIRITUALITY 

At  the  very  period,  too,  when  the  workingman's 
day  has  been  generally  lowered  from  ten  to  nine  or 
eight  hours  the  Church  finds  herself  increasingly 
incapable  of  commanding  any  part  of  the  working- 
man's  time.  Moreover,  even  if  it  be  true  that  the 
heavy  hand  of  worldly  responsibility  keeps  men  back 
from  the  Church,  what  is  this  but  a  confession  that 
the  Church  is  unable  to  compete  with  the  world? 
Or,  if  this  be  too  narrow  a  view  to  take  of  social 
forces — and  religious  forces,  too — let  us  ask 
whether  the  glory  of  religion  should  not  shine  as 
much  in  days  of  adversity  and  struggle  and  work 
as  in  days  of  placid  contentment.  Are  religion  and 
the  Church,  after  all,  something  for  men's  leisure 
hours  ? 

Another  possible  explanation  of  the  indifference 
of  men  toward  the  Church  is  that  there  is  a  greater 
tendency  for  men  than  for  women  to  be  dissatisfied 
with  the  attitude  of  the  Church  toward  industrial 
problems  and  movements.  Here  again,  even  if  we 
grant  the  premises,  the  explanation  is  seriously  lame 
and  incomplete.  For  why  have  not  these  dissatisfied 
men  asserted  themselves  in  the  life  of  the  Church 
by  preventing  or  reversing  the  condition  complained 
of?  They  are  in  the  majority;  why  have  they  not 
outvoted  those  with  whom  they  disagree?  It  is  a 
matter  of  the  deepest  regret  that  the  masses  should 
be  alienated,  but  it  is  cause  for  profound  alarm  that 
they  do  not  seem  to  feel  their  loss.  There's  the  rub. 

245 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

Unless  we  adopt  the  absurd  hypothesis  that  some- 
how the  religious  instinct  is  no  part  of  the  working- 
man's  nature,  we  are  forced  to  think  either  that  the 
food  that  is  fitted  to  satisfy  is  not  offered  or  that 
the  partaking  of  it  is  hedged  round  with  conditions 
which  even  the  religious  instinct  revolts  against. 
Think  for  a  moment :  on  the  simplest  assumptions 
of  the  Christian  religion  can  we  for  a  moment  ad- 
mit that,  where  real  Christianity  in  its  completeness 
is  offered  to  men,  the  masses  will  reject  it  and  not 
even  feel  their  loss? 

Again,  it  is  said  that  the  Church  is  suffering  par- 
tial  paralysis  due  to  her  lack  of  whole-hearted  sym- 
pathy with  the  modern  intellect;  that  she  desires 
light,  yet  distrusts  the  light-bringers — distrusts  the 
only  persons  who  have  so  loved  the  truth  as  to  bear 
the  toil  and  endure  the  pain  of  searching  for  it 
where  alone  it  can  be  found.  Suppose,  once  more, 
that  we  grant  the  premises  for  the  sake  of  seeing 
what  follows.  Is  it  conceivable  that  ignorance  is  so 
strongly  intrenched  in  the  Church  that  the  modern 
intellect  could  not  dislodge  it  even  with  its  mighty 
modern  weapons?  Why  does  not  the  intellectual 
world  care  enough  for  the  Church  to  save  her  from 
her  ignorance?  Why  is  it  so  easy,  whenever  eccle- 
siastical ignorance  withstands  knowledge,  for  the 
men  of  learning  to  avoid  the  natural  conflict?  Why 
are  intellectual  men  so  much  at  home  outside  the 

Church,  or  in  only  nominal  connection  with  it? 

246 


SPIRITUALITY 

Questions  like  these  open  up  many  avenues  for 
reflection.  We  might  talk  of  methods  of  Church 
work;  of  the  education  of  the  clergy  demanded  by 
our  times;  of  the  spiritual  ministries  springing  up 
outside  the  Church;  of  the  very  conception  of  the 
function  of  the  Church  in  the  world.  But  none  of 
these  can  quite  take  the  place  of  perhaps  the  most 
fundamental  question  of  all — the  constitution  and 
modes  of  working  of  the  human  mind  with  which 
we  have  to  deal.  What  are  the  basal  needs  of  thisj 
nature,  and  what  has  the  Christian  religion  to  offer  j 
for  their  satisfaction?  If  any  large  factor  in  the 
community  becomes  cold  toward  existing  modes  of 
organized  religion  the  question  becomes  pertinent 
whether  the  Church  is  as  broad  as  human  nature. 
This  problem  must  be  freshly  canvassed  in  every 
age,  lest  methods  and  institutions  become  obstacles 
rather  than  instruments  of  the  spirit  and  the  life. 

If  we  view  the  problem  psychologically  we  shall 
feel  perfectly  safe  in  assuming  that  any  large  and 
persistent  excess  of  women  in  the  Churches  is 
chiefly  due  to  a  superior  adaptation"  of  Church  life 
to  the  female  nature.  It  is  because  the  Church  looks 
at  things  with  feminine  eyes,  and  calls  chiefly  into 
exercise  the  faculties  in  which  women  excel  men. 
In  fact,  the  explanation  has  been  given  in  the  whole 
analysis  of  religious  phenomena  contained  in  the 
present  chapter  and  in  Chapter  III. 

James  Russell  Lowell,  speaking  of  the  American 
247 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

of  the  future,  remarks  that  his  religion  will  be  more 
than 

"an  ambulance 

To  fetch  life's  wounded  and  malingerers  in, 
Scorned  by  the  strong." l 

"Scorned  by  the  strong" — that  is  the  rebuke  that 
stings.     And  it  stings  because  of  the  measure  of 
truth    it    conveys.      The    practical    question    that 
emerges,  then,  is  whether  masculine  strength  would 
not  be  drawn  to  us  if  we  only  put  proportional  ] 
stress  upon  the  more  rugged,  active,  intellectual,  / 
and  social  virtues — if  we  only  held  up  the  com- 
plete ideal  for  humanity  with  not  even  a  fragment 
lacking. 

If  it  is  wise  to  learn  from  one's  enemies,  it  is  pos- 
sible to  believe  that  even  Nietsche  may  not  have 
been  in  absolute  error  when,  in  his  burning  accusa- 
tion against  Christianity,  he  charges,  among  other 
things,  that  it  worships  weakness  where  it  should 
worship  strength.2  There  is  a  lesson  for  us,  fur- 
thermore, in  the  popular  impression  that  there  is  a 
tendency  to  ultra-femininity  in  Sunday  school  in- 
struction. The  namby-pamby,  goody-goody  con- 
ception of  goodness  is  simply  an  exaggeration, 
amounting  to  a  caricature,  of  the  gentler  virtues  in 
which  women  excel.  Such  an  ideal  will,  of  course, 
lose  its  influence  over  boys  at  least  as  soon  as  they 
approach  manhood. 

1  "  The  Cathedral." 

9  See  his  Antichrist,  in  vol.  xi  of  his  Works,  New  York,  1896. 
248 


SPIRITUALITY 

The  temperamental  interpretation  of  Christianity 
is  likewise  one  probable  reason  for  the  aloofness 
from  the  Church  of  a  strangely  large  proportion  of 
the  most  high-minded,  morally  earnest,  and  intel- 
ligent men  and  women.  These  persons  live  correct 
lives  and  reverence  God ;  if  their  names  were  on  the 
roll  of  a  church  no  one  would  question  their  piety. 
Some  of  them  would  find  an  obstacle  to  Church 
membership  in  the  credal  vows  required  in  many  of 
the  Churches,  but  most  of  them  would  not.  Indeed, 
it  is  probable  that  only  a  small  proportion  of  them 
could  allege  any  specific  and  adequate  reason  why 
they  should  not  belong  to  some  Church.  The  fact 
seems  to  be  that  Church  life  and  ideals  do  not  appeal 
to  them.  In  much  the  same  mood  are  many  of  our 
members  who  have  the  capacity,  if  it  were  only  in 
active  exercise,  to  be  strong  leaders  and  workers. 
Their  attitude  toward  current  forms  of  spiritual 
culture — such  as  are  found  in  the  prayer  meeting, 
for  example — is  one  of  indifference,  if  it  is  not  actu- 
ally hostile.  If  it  were  possible  to  determine  by  a 
census  what  proportion  of  the  moral  and  intellectual 
strength  of  the  average  community,  and  particularly 
of  the  city  community,  is  actively  employed  in  what 
is  commonly  called  the  spiritual  work  of  the  Church, 
what  disheartening  figures  we  should  read!  It  is 
probably  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  average 
man  of  culture  and  moral  earnestness,  though  he 

may  look  upon  the  Church  as  a  useful  institution, 

249 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

and  hence  worthy  of  his  financial  support,  never- 
theless feels  little  personal  need  of  its  peculiar  min- 
istrations. 

This  attitude  must  be  regarded  as  a  grave  mis- 
take, and  from  many  points  of  view.  For  surely  we 
are  not  quite  ready  either  to  get  along  without 
churches  or  to  admit  that  the  Church  as  a  whole  has 
a  specific  mission  to  none  but  the  less  fortunate 
classes.  Shall  we,  then,  as  spiritual  self-compla- 
cency would  prompt  us  to  do,  assume  that  the  whole 
difficulty  lies  in  the  men  whom  the  Church  fails  to 
draw  to  her  heart?  Shall  we  say  that  a  merely 
temporary  breeze  of  worldliness  has  carried  them  a 
little  way  from  their  moorings  and  that  they  will 
yet  be  brought  back  to  the  unchanged  Church  ?  To 
very  many  observers,  who  believe  in  the  mission  of 
the  Church  to  all  men,  such  views  appear  utterly 
fatuous.  Instead  of  soothing  ourselves  by  self- 
righteous  assumption,  should  we  not  rather  ask  after 
more  facts?  Instead  of  accusing  those  whom  we 
fail  to  draw,  might  we  not  well  seek  to  understand 
the  actual  process  of  their  minds,  and  thus  discover 
whether  the  Church  is  offering  spiritual  refresh- 
ment and  modes  of  spiritual  activity  actually 
adapted  to  the  many-sided  human  personality? 
Perhaps  it  is  not  the  depravity,  but  rather  the  spirit- 
ual hunger,  of  men  that  deters  them. 

So  much  for  point  of  view.  Now  for  the  appli- 
cation of  our  own  results.  If  our  judgment  as  to 

250 


SPIRITUALITY 

the  one-sidedness  of  the  traditional  conception  of 
spirituality  is  just,  then  we  ought  to  expect  precise- 
ly such  an  alienation  of  strong  men  and  women 
from  the  Church  as  we  actually  discover.  We 
should  expect  to  find  a  general  lack  of  sympathy 
which  might  attach  itself  to  any  one  of  many  super- 
ficial faults  in  the  Church  but  would  not  be  ex- 
plained by  any  or  all  of  them.  In  a  word,  the  known 
results  are  natural  consequences  of  a  cause  which 
we  have  shown  to  exist.  The  difficulty  is  a  mal- 
adjustment of  temperaments — nothing  less  general, 
less  constitutional,  or  less  intangible  than  that.  Not 
but  that  many  other  sources  of  difficulty  coexist 
with  this  one ;  our  claim  is  not  to  have  laid  bare  the 
sole  cause,  but  only  one  real  and  profound  one. 
The  remedy  is  easily  defined,  at  least  in  its  broader 
aspects.  It  is  the  universalizing  of  Church  life  and 
ideals  through  recognition  of  the  fact  that  spiritual 
qualities  and  needs  run  through  the  whole  gamut 
of  human  faculties.  The  spiritual  conceit  of  the 
melancholic  temperament  must  be  resisted.  The 
spiritual  trivialities  of  the  sanguine  must  be  tran- 
scended. The  spirituality  of  the  moral  will  and  of 
the  truth-loving  intellect  must  be  not  merely  con- 
ceded, but  preached,  insisted  upon,  gloried  in.  This 
is  the  foundation  upon  which  the  rebuilding  must 
proceed. 

The  proposal  thus  to  broaden  the  psychological 
basis  of  Church  life  and  ideals  has  immediate  bear- 

251 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

ing  upon  the  most  vital  special  questions  of  the  day. 
A  few  of  these  questions  may  be  mentioned,  as,  for 
instance,  the  essentially  social  and  this-world  nature 
of  the  kingdom  of  God  and  of  salvation;  the  prob- 
lem of  institutional  Churches;  reform  in  revival 
methods ;  simplification  of  the  conditions  of  Church 
membership;  the  struggle  for  greater  flexibility  in 
matters  of  creed;  how  to  accept  new  light  with  re- 
gard to  the  Bible  without  first  fighting  against  it 
and  being  beaten;  the  movement  for  increased  co- 
operation and  ultimate  union  of  the  Churches.  This 
is  not  the  place  for  discussing  any  of  these  weighty 
matters.  But  such  discussion  should  certainly  be 
grounded  upon  a  sound  judgment  concerning  the 
psychological  soil  out  of  which  religion  as  well  as 
other  elements  of  civilization  must  grow. 

\f, 

The  Fleeting  and  the  Permanent  in  Christian  Ex- 
perience. 

As  a  relief  from  these  more  or  less  disquieting 
suggestions  let  us  go  back  once  more  for  a  parting 
glimpse  of  the  Christian  experience  of  which 
Churches  are  an  outcome  and  an  expression.  In 
the  questionnaire  to  which  reference  was  made  in 
the  earlier  chapters  the  following  question  was 
asked :  "What  is  there  in  religion  that  seems  to  you 
permanent,  that  is,  within- your  reach  at  any  and  all 
times  ?  Do  not  give  your  theory  of  how  it  ought  to 

be,  but  simply  state  what  you  yourself  have  found 

252 


SPIRITUALITY 


that  you  can  absolutely  rely  upon."  The  number  of 
answers  received  in  response  to  this  question  was 
52,  35  being  from  men  and  17  from  women.  They 
may  be  classified  as  follows : 


Of  35 


Of  17 


Of  to- 
tal 52. 


1.  Divine  help,  strength,  etc 

2.  Something  connected  with  right  and  wrong,  as  truth 

of  Christ's  principle  of  self-sacrifice,  Christ  the 
center  and  source  of  life,  meaning  in  life,  sense  of 
having  done  duty,  peace  from  doing  God's  will, 
obligation  recognized  as  God's  will,  peace  to  a 
troubled  conscience,  moral  ideals,  brotherhood  of 
man,  something  to  live  for 

3.  Something  connected  with   prayer  and  promises,  a 

Bible  promises  sure,  Christ  and  his  word  of  truth, 
power  of  prayer,  willingness  to  answer  prayer 

4.  Social  feelings,  as  friendship,  love,  or  companionship 

of  God  or  of  Christ,  sympathy,  comfort,  trust, 
sense  of  God's  presence 

5.  Something  connected  with  forgiveness,  as  pardoning 

power,  assurance  of  acceptance 

6.  Miscellaneous,  as    rest,  peace,  joy,   no   fear,   refuge 

from  disappointments,  omniscience  of  God,  assur- 
ance of  eternal  life 


There  are  several  things  about  this  table  that 
might  well  attract  attention.  In  the  first  place,  it 
illustrates  in  a  new  way  the  already  known  fact 
that  men  vary  more  than  women.  For,  while  nearly 
all  the  answers  from  women  can  be  bunched  in  two 
classes,  the  answers  from  the  men  run  through  a 
larger  scale  and  are  less  bunched  at  any  point. 
Again,  as  indicated  in  a  previous  section,  while  the 
women  far  exceed  the  men  in  mentioning  feelings 
of  social  relationship  to  God  and  help  from  God, 
the  men  exceed  the  women  even  more  strikingly 
in  designating  matters  connected  with  right  and 
wrong,  with  prayer  and  forgiveness. 

But  perhaps  the  most  significant  point  of  all,  at 


17 


253 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

least  for  our  present  purpose,  is  the  diversity  of 
gifts  in  the  unity  of  the  Spirit — the  varying  accents 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Approximately  half  of  the 
writers  did  not  mention  divine  aid  as  a  permanent 
fact  in  their  experience.  Doubtless  it  is  a  perma- 
nent fact,  but  this  particular  aspect  of  the  Christian's 
privilege  certainly  appeals  to  some  devout  minds 
far  less  than  it  does  to  others.  Similarly,  nearly 
half  the  writers  fail  to  mention  social  feeling  to- 
ward God  or  Christ  as  permanent.  Now,  in  all 
probability  some  feeling  like  that  of  communion  is 
approximately,  if  not  absolutely,  universal  and  per- 
manent; yet  it  occupies  the  attention  and  thought 
of  some  much  more  than  of  others.  It  is  not  the 
most  powerful  lever. 

An  inspection  of  the  table  just  given  will  show 
that  the  first  three  groups  are  relatively  homogene- 
ous, while  the  remaining  groups  form  a  second 
homogeneous  set  differing  from  the  former.  Re- 
classifying  upon  this  new  basis,  we  secure  another 
angle  from  which  to  view  the  facts : 


Of  35 
men. 

Of  17 

women. 

Of  to- 
tal 52. 

Help,  invigoration  of  the  will,  something  connected  with 
duty  

28 

12 

40 

Various  kinds  of  satisfactory  feeling.  „  

20 

!7 

37 

This  represents,  not  the  number  of  times  certain 
qualities  come  to  expression,  but  the  number  of  per- 
sons giving  answers  of  each  kind.  The  most  that 
need  be  claimed  for  this  result  is  that  it  is  signifi- 

254 


SPIRITUALITY 

cant  of  a  trend.  It  is  a  straw  which  shows  the 
direction  of  the  wind.  But  the  evidence,  as  far  as  it 
goes,  tends  to  show  that  the  strength  of  Christianity 
lies  as  much  in  its  appeal  to  the  moral  will  as  in  its 
appeal  to  feeling.  This  is  true  of  the  general  aver- 
age. But  in  the  case  of  the  men  the  preponderance 
of  the  moral  will  becomes  very  marked.  If  the 
answers  that  mentioned  pardon,  which  came  ex- 
clusively from  men,  were  to  be  classified  with  the 
group  called  "something  connected  with  right  and 
wrong,"  the  exhibit  would  be  still  more  nearly  con- 
clusive. If,  now,  the  fact  be  noted  that  these  an- 
swers were  obtained  almost  exclusively  from  per- 
sons brought  up  under  the  influence  of  a  Church  that 
cultivates  religious  emotions  more  than  any  other 
of  the  large  denominations  of  Christians;  and  if, 
furthermore,  the  fact  be  noted  that  the  writers  were 
still  within  hailing  distance  of  the  sentimental  age 
of  life,  the  results  gain  enhanced  significance.  What 
they  suggest  to  us  is  that  however  much  we  culti- 
vate religious  feelings  we  cannot  touch  the  whole 
of  human  nature — of  the  religious  nature — until  we 
learn  that  states  of  the  will  as  well  as  of  the  sensi- 
bility are  included  in  religious  experience.  In  par- 
ticular, with  men  it  is  in  the  sphere  of  the  moral 
will  that  religion  makes  its  most  abiding  impres- 
sion. 

It  does  not  belong  to  the  scope  of  this  discussion 
to  show  in  detail  how  the  Christian  religion  appeals 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

to  the  will,  invigorates  it,  prescribes  its  ideals,  and 
even  through  it  reacts  upon  both  the  intellectual  and 
the  emotional  faculties.  Nor  can  we  here  inquire 
what  has  been  universal  and  what  merely  occasional 
in  the  religious  experience  of  the  Church  as  a  whole 
through  all  the  Christian  centuries.  But  it  is  safe 
to  say  that  a  study  of  the  history  of  Christianity 
with  a  view  to  answering  this  question  would  prove 
to  be  a  most  illuminating  and  invigorating  exer- 
cise. As  a  starting  point  for  such  a  study,  we  may 
glance,  in  conclusion,  at 

The  Mind  of  the  Master. 

What  shall  we  say  of  Jesus's  mental  organization, 
and  of  his  attitude  toward  life,  looked  at  from  a 
purely  psychological  point  of  view?  The  difficulties 
in  the  quest  for  such  knowledge  are  very  large ;  for, 
not  only  were  there  no  modern  eyes  to  observe 
Jesus,  and  no  modern  motives  for  observing  him, 
but  also  the  literary  medium  through  which  we  get 
our  only  glimpses  of  him  is  itself  mere  or  less  of  a 
psychological  problem.  Perhaps  nothing,  more- 
over, is  more  difficult  than  to  free  ourselves  from 
the  peculiar  atmospheric  perspective  with  which 
history,  and  particularly  the  Roman  Church,  has 
enveloped  everything  connected  with  the  life  of 
Christ.  The  Church  has  represented  him  as  the 
prince  of  a^cetics^  and  art  in  large  degree  has 

adopted  the  ecclesiastical  conception.    This  concep- 

"256 


SPIRITUALITY 

tion  has  attained  a  most  instructive  concrete  repre- 
sentation in  the  Passion  Play  at  Oberammergau. 
The  full  resources  of  the  highest  modern  dramatic 
art  are  here  poured  out  to  make  vivid  and  impress- 
ive the  figure  of  the  Man  of  Sorrows.  It  is,  in  fact, 
difficult  to  imagine  how  the  Roman  conception 
could  have  a  more  perfect  setting  forth  to  eye  and 
ear.  The  design  is  unquestionably  artistic,  the  exe- 
cution adequate  to  the  design.  Undoubtedly  art 
values  and  religious  values  are  there.  But  what  is 
the  design  thus  wrought  into  forms  of  sense?  It 
is  simply  pathos,  or  suffering  innocence  personified. 
I  speak  of  the  play  as  it  was  presented  the  last  time 
(1890).  The  figure  of  Jesus  as  portrayed  by  Josef 
Mayer  was  that  of  a  purely  passive  sufferer.  At 
times  the  sufferer  seemed  to  be  dazed,  benumbed, 
by  the  continuous  pain;  again  he  seemed  to  make 
a  virtue  of  suffering,  as  though,  if  the  expres- 
sion may  be  allowed,  he  was  a  supreme  specialist 
in  that  art.  The  fullness  of  manhood  which  the  j 
theory  of  Christ's  person  demands  was  not  dis-  i 
cernible. 

Nietsche,  endeavoring  to  analyze  the  person  of 
Christ  from  the  standpoint  of  modern  psychology 
and  neurology,  proclaimed  that  Jesus  was  a  de- 
generate and  a  neurotic.1  But  I  think  it  can  be 
shown  that  Nietsche  got  his  general  notion  of  the 
facts  less  from  the  first  sources  than  from  the  eccle- 

1  Antichrist,  in  vol.  xi  of  his  Works,  1896. 
257 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

siastical  tradition.    It  is  not  strange,  to  be  sure,  that 
he  who,  of  all  men,  was  most  a  man  of  sorrows 
should,  in  a  sorrowful  world  like  ours,  be  commonly 
portrayed  as  a  sufferer.     But  it  may  be  doubted  ] 
whether  either  art  or  religious  instruction  has  at  all  | 
adequately  set  forth  the  victorious  element  in  his 
whole  character  and  career.     We  hardly  grasp  the 
meaning  of  the  suffering  itself  until  we  perceive 
that,  it  expressed  not  only  exquisite  sensibility,  not 
only  the  pathos  of  utter  injustice,  but  also  marvel- 
ous resoluteness  and  persistence  of  will — nay,  the'\ 
carrying  out  of  a  plan  through  and  by  means  of  this  \ 
very  suffering.     The  pains  he  had  to  bear,  that  is, 
do  not  stand  for  a  passive  but  rather  an  active  per- 
sonality.    To  refer  to  a  single  illustration  of  this 
point,  not  a  parallel  case,  we  may  ask  whether  it 
would  not  work  historical  injustice  if,  in  thinking 
and  speaking  of  John  Brown,  we  habitually  fixed 
attention  upon  the  pains  he  had  to  endure  as  a  con- 
sequence or  even  as  part  of  his  plan  instead  of  upon 
the  central  inspiration  of  his  life.      Similarly,  to  , 
think  of  Jesus  as  incarnate  pathos  more  than  as  in-  ' 
carnate  heroism  is  a  perversion  of  fact. 

This  implies  that  his  strength  of  will  was  not  the 
same  as  that  of  the  ascetics.  The  difference  in  this 
respect  between  him  and,  say,  Peter  the  Hermit  is 
that  between  a  healthy  will,  able  to  stand  erect  amid 
all  the  jostling  interests  and  all  the  buffetings  of 

life?  and  one  that  has  the  appearance  of  strength 

258 


SPIRITUALITY 

only  because  it  has  been  concentrated  by  an  un- 
healthy process  of  self-inversion. 

It  is  time  to  see  and  proclaim  that  Jesus  was  not  f 
a  sentimental,  or  melancholic,  or  introspective  mind.  I 
We  are  told  that  he  is  not  known  to  have  smiled 
but  is  known  to  have  wept ;  and  yet  he  entered  most 
fully  into  the  gayety  of  the  marriage  feast,  and  ac- 
cepted the  simple  pleasures  of  life  so  whole-heart- 
edly that  he  was  accused  of  being  a  glutton  and  a 
winebibber.    If  we  would  but  look  to  see  we  should 
find  an  active  and  penetrating  and  objective  intel-j 
lect  shining  through  his  teachings.    We  should  also 
find  a  robust  as  well  as  controlled  will,  not  merely  | 
when  he  cleansed  the  temple,  but  in  many  a  vicis- 
situde in  which  weak  men  would  have  quailed.1 

In  his  teachings,  too,  he  explicitly  guarded 
against  the  narrowing  down  of  religion  to  tempera- 
mental qualities.  The  sentimentality  of  Mary  was 
not  preferred  above  the  practical  activity  of  Martha, 
but  only  Mary's  choice  of  that  which  brings  unity 
and  repose  of  spirit  into  the  multitudinous  duties  of 
life.  As  soon  as  Zacchaeus  decided  upon  a  course 
of  righteous  living  Jesus  announced  that  salvation 
had  come  to  him.  Jesus's  answer  to  the  young  man 
who  wanted  to  know  how  to  attain  eternal  life,  his 
declaration  of  the  principle  of  the  final  judgment, 
and  his  summary  of  duty  in  the  two  great  com- 
mandments, all  are  unequivocal  in  placing  the  cen- 

1  Thomas  Hughes,  The  Manliness  of  Christ. 
259 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

ter  of  gravity  of  spiritual  life  in  the  attitude  of  the 
will. 

In  Jesus  and  the  religion  which  he  teaches,  then, 
spirituality  is  complete  because  all-sided.  It  rests 
upon  nothing  incidental  to  environment  or  peculiar 
to  any  temperament.  What  he  commands  and  com- 
mends is  realizable  by  all. 

260 


APPENDIX  A 


APPENDIX  A 
Questionnaire  on  Religious  Experience 

THE  sole  purpose  of  the  following  questions  is  to 
discover  the  actual  processes  of  the  mind  in  its  re- 
ligious experiences.  It  is  believed  that  definite 
scientific  knowledge  of  these  processes  may  be  made 
of  no  small  assistance  in  religious  work,  training, 
and  self-culture.  Your  answers  will  be  treated  as 
confidential  if  you  so  desire.  If  there  is  any  marked 
fact  in  your  religious  life  which  the  questions  do 
not  bring  out,  please  describe  it.  Kindly  write  your 
answers  in  ink,  on  only  one  side  of  each  sheet,  and 
leave  a  margin  of  one  inch  at  top  of  each  sheet. 

1.  Sex. 

2.  Name. 
3-  Age. 

^4.  What  blood  predominates  in  your  veins  (for 
example,  English,  Scotch,  Irish,  German, 
Norwegian,  etc.)  ? 

5.  What  Church  are  you  a  member  of? 

6.  Were  you  brought  up  under  the  influence  of 

this  Church? 

7.  At  what  age  did  you  join? 

^8.  State  your  age  at  each  period  of  marked  reli- 
gious awakening  in  your  life.     By  religious 

awakening  is  meant  a  deep  impression  that 
261 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

you  ought  to  be  religious,  that  you  ought  to 
attain  a  higher  level  of  religious  life,  etc. 
9.  Indicate  in  a  word  what  each  of  these  periods 
of  awakening  led  to,  as,  for  example,  con- 
version,  sanctification,   joining  the   Church 
or  being  confirmed,  restoration  after  falling, 
reconsecration   after   a   period   of   coldness, 
etc.    If  nothing  came  of  it,  say  so. 
10.  Describe  your  experiences  in  each  of  these  peri- 
ods, taking  the  periods  one  by  one. 

For  example,  did  you  experience  sorrow  for 
sin,  and  if  so,  was  it  for  specific  sins  that  you 
knew  you  had  committed?  Was  it  for  a 
bad  temper,  or  other  bad  qualities  of  heart 
or  character  ?  Or  was  it  for  something  else  ? 

Were  you  afraid  of  anything,  as  the  wrath  of 
God,  hell,  etc.  ? 

State  any  doubts  that  troubled  you. 

What  was  your  most  intense  desire  at  the  time  ? 

What  did  you  think  you  ought  to  be  that  you 
,          were  not  already? 

What  did  you  do  about  it  ? 

What  did  you  hope  or  expect  would  be  the  re- 
sult? State  as  exactly  as  you  can  what  you 
had  faith  for  (removal  of  the  sense  of  guilt? 
joy?  peace?  victory  over  a  certain  tempta- 
tion or  fault  ?  help  in  doing  some  hard  duty  ? 
love  for  your  enemies?  sense  of  God's  pres- 
ence or  love?). 

262 


APPENDIX  A 

How  did  it  come  out?  How  were  you  different 
in  feeling,  etc.,  from  what  you  were  before? 
Make  your  answer  very  specific. 

Did  you  hear  any  voices?  See  any  visions? 
Have  any  remarkable  dream?  Experience 
any  physical  manifestations? 

Did  you  experience  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  or 
assurance  ? 

Did  any  of  these  phenomena  change  very  soon  ? 
If  so,  what  ones,  and  how  soon  did  each 
change  ? 

Were  you  entirely  satisfied  with  your  new  ex- 
perience? If  not,  what  was  lacking? 

What  part  did  God  seem  to  have  in  this  entire 
series  of  events?  What  made  you  think  so? 
The  question  is  not  what  you  now  believe, 
but  what  you  then  felt  and  thought  about  it. 

Add  any  other  facts  that  will  help  to  make  clear 
just  what  went  on  in  your  own  mind  at  these 
times. 

ii.  What  influenced  you  in  each  of  these  cases 
(for  example,  the  Bible,  a  sermon,  the  per- 
sonal solicitude  of  some  one  else,  seeing 
others  start,  the  death  of  a  friend,  or  the 
general  trend  of  things  at  the  time)  ? 

If  you  were  influenced  by  revival  meetings,  de- 
scribe the  method  of  conducting  the  meet- 
ings, and  what  there  was  about  them  that 

particularly  moved  you. 
263 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

If  you  prayed,  what  did  you  pray  for,  and  how 
did  the  answers  come  ? 

Did  the  example,  experiences,  or  conversation 
of  others  move  you?  If  so,  tell  what  they 
did  or  said,  and  how  it  affected  you. 

If  you  were  affected  by  music,  tell  what  the 
music  was  and  what  effect  it  had  upon  you. 

If  you  made  a  decision  of  any  sort,  what  was 
it,  and  how  did  you  come  to  make  it  ? 

Were  other  persons  passing  through  the  same 
experiences  and  making  the  same  decisions 
as  yourself?  How  many  others? 

Was  any  person  whom  you  very  much  admired 
or  very  much  disliked  in  any  way  connected 
with  these  events?  If  so,  what  was  it  you 
admired  or  disliked  in  him,  and  what  did  he 
have  to  do  with  your  experiences  at  the 
time? 

What  delayed,  hindered,  rendered  painful,  or 
altogether  prevented  the  advance  in  religious 
life  that  you  felt  you  ought  to  make  ? 

Add  any  other  facts  that  will  help  to  make  clear 
what  influences  were  playing  upon  you  at 
the  time. 

12.  Describe  your  religious  environment  in  child- 
hood. 

For  example,  what  members  of  your  family 
were  religious,  and  what  ones  were  not? 

Did  you  know  the  history  of  your  parents'  re- 
264 


APPENDIX  A 

ligious  experience?    If  so,  give  a  brief  out- 
line of  it. 

What  did  they  teach  you  about  religion?  Es- 
pecially about  what  one  does  and  experiences 
in  conversion? 

If  conversions,  etc.,  took  place  among  members 
of  the  family,  give  a  brief  outline  of  the  cir- 
cumstances, and  tell  how  you  were  affected 
thereby. 

Was  there  family  prayer?  Were  definite  an- 
swers to  prayer  expected,  and  were  they  re- 
ceived ?  If  so,  give  an  example  or  two. 

Were  you  aware  that  your  parents,  pastor,  or 
Sunday  school  teacher  regarded  you  as  a 
sinner  ? 

Was  anybody  very  anxious  about  your  conver- 
sion? Did  you  know  it  at  the  time? 

What  was  looked  upon  by  yourself  and  the  per- 
sons about  you  as  evidence  that  one  was 
converted  ? 

How  did  you  come  to  realize  that  you  were  a 
rebel  against  God? 

In  short,  name  anything  in  your  childhood  en- 
vironment that  tended  to  affect  your  reli- 
gious development. 
13.  What  were  your  religious  habits  in  childhood? 

Were  you  in  the  habit  of  praying?  Describe 
any  answers  to  your  prayers. 

Were  you  in  the  habit  of  performing  any  other 
265 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

private  religious  exercises?  If  so,  name 
them. 

Did  you  ever  seem  to  see  God,  or  to  hear  his 
voice?  Or  did  he  seem  to  come  to  you  in 
any  other  way?  Describe  the  experience. 

Were  you  habitually  wicked?  If  so,  did  you 
realize  it  at  the  time,  and  what  were  then 
your  thoughts  about  God,  etc.?  If  you  are 
willing  to  do  so,  state  the  general  direction 
your  wickedness  took. 

If  not  habitually  wicked,  did  you  have  a  beset- 
ting sin  into  which  you  occasionally  fell? 
If  you  are  willing  to  do  so,  indicate  its  gen- 
eral nature.  How  did  you  feel  about  this 
sin,  and  about  your  relation  to  God  ? 

When  you  resisted  a  temptation  or  did  a  hard 
duty,  did  you  seem  to  have  help  from  God? 
What  made  you  think  that  he  helped  you? 

Were  you  conscious  of  his  approval  when  you 
did  right,  and  of  his  disapproval  when  you 
did  wrong?  How  did  this  differ  from  the 
approval  and  disapproval  of  conscience?  In 
your  answer  to  this  question  distinguish 
carefully  between  what  you  then  felt  and 
what  you  now  think  about  it. 

Did  you  perform  any  public  religious  duties, 
such  as  going  to  church,  partaking  the  com- 
munion, speaking  in  meeting?  Tell  what 

services  you  were  accustomed  to  attend,  the 
266 


APPENDIX  A 

age  at  which  you  began  to  attend  each,  and 
the  age  at  which  you  ceased  to  attend. 

Which  service  impressed  you  most,  and  hoiv 
did  it  impress  you? 

Were  any  marked  religious  phenomena,  such  as 
conversions,  sanctifications,  etc.,  taking 
place  about  you?  Did  you  witness  any? 
Hear  testimonies  of  any?  Give  brief  de- 
scription of  the  ones  that  most  impressed 
you. 

If  your  notions  of  religious  experience  subse- 
quently underwent  any  transformation,  tell 
what  the  change  was  and  how  it  came  about. 
14.  Have  you  had  ups  and  downs  in  your  religious 
experience  ? 

If  so,  what  is  it  that  has  been  irregular  (for  ex- 
ample, joy,  peace,  trust  and  worry,  certainty 
and  doubt  of  your  acceptance,  fervor  and 
coldness  in  prayer,  delight  in  duty)  ? 

How  frequent  have  these  changes  been? 

Name  any  causes  that  you  have  been  able  to 
discover  (for  example,  good  and  ill  health, 
overwork,  influence  of  worldly  or  spiritual 
associates,  willful  sin,  deliberate  determina- 
tion to  do  a  duty,  new  theories  about  reli- 
gion, new  insight  into  the  Bible,  etc. ) .  Have 
the  "ups"  of  a  particular  kind  generally  oc- 
curred in  a  particular  season  of  the  year,  and 

have  the  corresponding  "downs"  generally 
267 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

occurred  in  a  particular  season?  What  sea- 
sons? Have  persons  about  you  exhibited 
the  same  variations? 

Look  over  the  marked  changes  in  your  circum- 
stances in  life — such  as  occupation,  place  of 
residence,  social  surroundings  or  associates, 
pastor,  teachers,  lines  of  reading  or  study— 
and  tell  whether  changes  in  your  religious 
life  have  been  coincident  with  these  other 
changes.  State  the  direction  of  the  change 
in  each  case. 

How  does  your  present  religious  feeling  differ 
from  that  of  the  period  just  following  your 
conversion  ? 

If  you  have  never  been  converted,  state  how 
your  feelings  with  respect  to  God  have 
changed  since  childhood.  Do  you  find  any 
difference  in  the  approvals  and  disapprovals 
of  conscience? 

If  you  have  been  entirely  sanctified,  describe  the 
difference  between  your  habitual  feelings  at 
present  and  those  that  were  habitual  before. 

What  is  there  in  religion  that  seems  to  you  per- 
manent, that  is  within  your  reach  at  any  and 
all  times  ?  Do  not  give  your  theory  of  how 
it  ought  to  be,  but  simply  state  what  you 
yourself  have  found  that  you  can  absolutely 
rely  upon. 

15.  At  what  periods  in  your  life  has  your  health 

268 


APPENDIX  A 

been  at  its  best?  When  has  it  not  been 
good?  Include  in  your  answer  all  instances 
of  prolonged  nervous  exhaustion,  excessive 
nervousness,  debility,  etc.  If  you  are  will- 
ing to  do  so,  name  the  defect  of  health  with 
each  period.  If  you  are  unwilling  to  state 
the  particular  difficulty,  designate  the  fact 
simply  as  "fit  of  sickness,"  "not  in  my  usual 
health,"  "not  strong,"  etc. 

What  was  the  state  of  your  health  at  each  of  the 

periods  mentioned  in  questions? 
1 6.  What  kind  of  work,  play,  books,  studies,  nat- 
ural scenery,  music,  poems,  acquaintances, 
social  gatherings,  conversation,  and  reli- 
gious exercises  do  you  like  best,  and  which 
do  you  most  dislike? 

If  you  were  obliged  to  spend  a  whole  day  alone, 
felt  at  perfect  liberty  to  follow  your  inclina- 
tions, and  had  the  means  to  do  so,  what 
would  you  do? 

What  sort  of  things  or  persons  annoy  you 
most? 

Do  you  laugh  and  cry  easily?  Do  you  make 
friends  easily?  Do  your  friendships  last? 

Do  you  get  angry  or  indignant  easily?  Do  you 
get  over  anger  or  indignation  quickly? 
When  you  get  angry,  which  of  the  follow- 
ing is  most  likely  to  happen :  long  brooding 

over  the  wound?  weeping?  loud  words?  an 
18  269 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

immediate  effort  to  "get  even,"  or  to  correct 
the  wrong?  deliberate  and  cold-blooded 
planning  to  do  so? 

Are  you  accustomed  to  have  deep  fears,  long- 
ings, the  blues,  or  other  moods  that  last  a 
long  time  ?  If  you  are  willing  to  do  so,  give 
examples. 

Is  it  hard  for  you  to  abandon  a  task  which  you 
have  undertaken  but  not  completed?  Give 
examples.  Does  any  ambition  or  ideal  stir 
you  to  the  depths?  How  long  has  it  done 
so? 

Are  you  very  bashful  ?  Do  you  suffer  from  any 
other  form  of  sensitiveness? 

Do  you  think  a  great  deal  about  your  future  ? 

Are  you  accustomed  to  examine  yourself,  weigh 
your  motives,  estimate  your  spiritual  health  ? 

Are  you  prompt  or  hesitating  in  your  decisions, 
especially  in  small  matters?  Have  you  al- 
ways been  so?  If  you  are  hesitating,  tell 
how  you  finally  make  the  move. 

Do  you  enjoy  active  physical  exercise? 

Do  you  ever  get  worn  out  with  excitement?  If 
so,  describe  or  name  a  few  occasions  on 
which  this  has  happened. 

Have  you  ever  had  a  vision  of  an  absent  or  dead 
friend?  Ever  heard  the  voice  of  such  a 
friend?  Ever  seen  or  heard  anything  that 

could  not  be  accounted  for  as  an  ordinary 

270  m 


APPENDIX  A 

act  of  perception?  Particularly,  have  you 
ever  heard  voices,  either  coming  to  you  from 
outside,  or  seeming  to  come  from  within? 
If  you  have  had  any  of  these  experiences 
(which  are  common),  relate  the  circum- 
stances. Be  particular  to  say  how  often  you 

have  had  each  kind  of  manifestation. 
271 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 


APPENDIX  B 

Plan  for  the  Observation  of  Temperament 

1.  Name. 

2.  Age. 

3.  Sex. 

4.  Nationality. 

5.  Color  of  hair. 

6.  Of  eyes. 

7.  Complexion. 

8.  Stout  or  thin. 

9.  General  health. 

10.  Are  the  eyes  active  and  restless?    Are  they  in- 

tense and  penetrating?  Are  they  dull  and 
expressionless  ? 

11.  Do  face  and  manner  indicate  that  he  is  wide- 

awake to  his  surroundings,  or  does  he  seem, 
rather,  to  be  chiefly  occupied  with  his  own 
thoughts?  Does  he  have  an  absent-minded 
air,  or  a  far-away  and  dreamy  look  ? 

12.  Is  the  facial  expression  placid?    Are  the  mus- 

cles of  the  face  drawn  as  if  through  mental 
intensity?  Does  he  draw  down  his  eye- 
brows? Are  there  strongly  marked  perpen- 
dicular furrows  between  the  eyes?  Is  he 
very  deliberate? 

13.  Is  the  voice  shrill  and  high-keyed?     Does  he 

272 


APPENDIX  B 

speak  very  rapidly,  or  very  slowly?  Does  he 
speak  before  he  thinks? 

14.  Do  his  muscles  seem  to  be  habitually  relaxed? 

If  not,  do  they  seem  to  be  habitually  con- 
tracted? Are  his  motions  quick  and  wiry, 
or  more  moderate,  free,  and  pendulum-like? 
Are  they  very  slow  ? 

15.  Which  is  more  characteristic  of  him:  receiving 

impressions  from  his  surroundings,  or  active 
effort  to  control  or  change  his  surroundings  ? 

1 6.  Is  he  easily  persuaded?    If  not,  is  it  because  of 

(a)  a  habit  of  deliberation,  (&)  contrari- 
ness, or  (c)  mere  inertia? 

17.  Is  he  a  warm  and  intense  or  cold  and  passion- 

less soul?  Does  he  get  angry  or  indignant 
easily  ?  Does  he  get  over  it  quickly  ?  When 
he  is  angry  or  indignant,  which  of  the  fol- 
lowing are  characteristic  of  him?  (a)  Ready 
feeling  without  action;  (b)  Intense  feeling 
with  immediate  action,  speech  included;  (c) 
Feeling  too  feeble  to  produce  very  positive 
action;  (d)  Tendency  to  brood  over  his  in- 
dignation, but  not  to  act;  (e)  Tendency  to 
plan  deliberate  revenge  or  the  improvement 
of  conditions,  and  action  to  that  end  in  cool 
blood ;  (/)  Fixed  and  unchangeable  aversion. 

1 8.  Does  he  change  easily  from  one  activity  to  an- 

other (for  example,  is  he  persistent  in  what 
he  undertakes,  loyal  to  his  friends,  obstinate, 
273 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

"pig-headed,"  fickle,  etc.)?  Does  he  make 
acquaintances  easily?  If  he  is  fickle,  does  he 
change  about  from  mere  impulse,  or  from 
calculation?  If  he  is  constant,  is  it  from 
principle,  or  is  it  merely  because  he  tends  to 
keep  going  in  any  direction  after  he  has  once 
started?  Has  he  a  strong  sense  of  consist- 
ency? 

19.  Has  he  a  cheerful  disposition?     Does  he  get 

the  blues?  If  so,  is  the  mood  intense,  and 
how  long  does  it  generally  last?  What 
other  pronounced  moods  does  he  have,  and 
how  long  do  they  last  ?  Is  he  given  to  criti- 
cising? If  so,  does  he  take  it  out  in  merely 
finding  fault,  or  does  he  brood  over  what  he 
criticises,  or  does  he  work  for  improvement? 
If  he  works  for  improvement,  are  his  efforts 
impetuous  and  spasmodic,  or  steady  and  per- 
sistent ? 

20.  Which  of  the  following  characterize  his  intel- 

lect? (a)  Quickness;  (&)  Accuracy;  (c) 
Slowness;  (d)  Inaccuracy;  (e)  Clearness  of 
insight;  (/)  Breadth  of  information;  (g) 
System;  (h)  Lack  of  system;  (i)  Recep- 
tivity, or  ability  to  understand;  (/)  Fond- 
ness for  finding  out  things  for  himself,  and 
not  resting  in  what  he  is  told. 

21.  Is  he  oversensitive  in  the  way  of  bash  fulness ; 

of   overconscientiousness ;    of    self-deprecia- 
274 


APPENDIX  B 

tion?  Is  he  given  to  introspection?  Is  he 
troubled  by  doubts  and  fears  ?  Is  he  hard  to 
get  acquainted  with? 

22.  Is  he  self-assertive  ?    If  so,  what  direction  does 

the  self-assertiveness  take  (for  example, 
does  he  monopolize  conversation;  break  in 
when  others  are  speaking;  stoutly  contra- 
dict opinions  that  differ  from  his  own;  be- 
come quarrelsome  when  he  cannot  convince; 
make  undue  effort  to  control  his  associates)  ? 
What  is  the  effect  of  his  not  having  his  own 
way?  Does  it  depress  his  feelings,  or  rouse 
him  to  more  intense  antagonism  or  self-as- 
sertion ? 

23.  Which  of  the  following  characterize  his  reli- 

gious life?  (a)  Rapid  rise  and  fall  of  feeling, 
or  change  from  one  feeling  to  another.  Does 
he  have  to  be  revived  every  winter?  Is  his 
conduct  unsteady?  Or  his  religious  activi- 
ties? (b)  Prevalence  of  happy  mood.  Does 
it  ever  become  ecstatic?  (c)  Prevalence  of 
unhappy  mood,  such  as  anxiety,  sorrow  for 
sins  of  himself  or  of  the  Church,  censorious- 
ness,  discouragement,  etc.  (d)  The  revival 
spirit,  always  wanting  to  have  something 
going  on,  fondness  for  excitement.  Indi- 
cate whether  this  issues  in  persistent  work, 
or  spasmodic  effort,  or  no  work  at  all.  (e) 
Wide  sympathy  with  suffering  humanity. 
275 


THE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE 

(/)  Philanthropic  activities.  Are  they  steady 
or  spasmodic?  (g)  Meditation  on  the  good- 
ness of  God,  the  awfulness  of  sin,  the  suf- 
ferings of  Christ,  the  blessings  of  grace,  etc. 
(h)  Intellectual  attitude  toward  religion. 
Chief  emphasis,  upon  truth.  Is  he  conserva- 
tive ;  radical ;  bigoted  and  intolerant  ? 
24.  Name  his  most  prominent  characteristic,  all 
things  considered.  Is  this  the  general  opin- 
ion of  him?  Name  any  apparent  contradic- 
tion in  his  nature,  that  is,  union  of  opposite 

qualities. 

276 


INDEX 


Adolescence,  33ff.,  56ff. 

Altruism,  69,  92. 

Anaesthesia,  155. 

Anger,  89. 

Anthony,  St.,  208. 

Art  of  Religious  Culture,  21  ff. 

Asceticism,  101. 

Augustine,  210. 

Automatisms,  Mental  and  Motor, 

121ft.,  138, 141ff. 
Awakening,  Religious,  29ff.,  39ff. 

Bacchantes,  141. 

Bain,  A.,  105f. 

Bernheim,  H.,  155,  169,  187,  188, 

192. 

Besant,  A.,  143. 
Bible,  15, 19,  218. 
Blackie,  J.  8.,  228. 
Body  (see  Physical). 
Bradley,  F.  H.,  219. 
Braid,  J.,  155, 161. 
Brewster,  Sir  David,  183. 
Brinton,  D.  G.,  242. 
Buddha,  Gautama,  141. 
Burnham,  W.  H.,  13,  35. 
Burr,  A.  H.,  117. 

Catholic  Church  (Roman),  48,  56, 

151, 188,  241. 
Child  Mind,  31f. 
Child  Religion,  32f.,  60ff. 
Christ  (see  Jesus). 
Christian  Science,23,151, 166, 175f., 

189ff. 


Christianity,  106,  203,  205f.,  243, 

260. 

Conscience,  67ff.,  73ff. 
Conversion,  42ff.,  105ff.,  140,  146f. 

Dangers  of  Suggestion,  169ff. 
Daniels,  A.  H.,  13,  48. 
Diagnosis,  Spiritual,  104. 
Diagnosis  in  Disease,  171, 186, 193, 

197. 

Difficulties  of  Adolescents,  56ff. 
Doubts,  58ff.,  84,  237,  239. 
Dreams,  122. 
Drummond,  H.,  104. 
Dynamics,  Religious,  104ff.,  108. 


,  141. 

Eddy,  Mary  B.  G.,  191ff.,  196, 199. 
Ellis,  H.,  106,  236. 
Emerson,  R.  W.,  205. 
Emotion,  Physical  Effects  of,  156f. 
Emotion  in  Religion,  141,  215,  219. 
Epidemics,  Religious,  141. 
Expectation  (see  Suggestibility). 
Experience,   Religious  (see    Reli- 
gious). 
Experimental  Method,  138. 

Faith  Healing,  151ff.,166,176,184ff. 

Fatigue,  71ff.,  93,  98. 

Fear,  50,  157. 

Feelings,  Religious,  50  (see  also 

Emotion  in  Religion). 
Feminine    Element    in   Religion, 

236ff.,  244,  247. 


277 


INDEX 


Fouillee,  A.,  115. 

Francis  of  Assisi,  200,  209ff . 

Gulick,  L.,  13,  40. 

Hall,  G.  S.,  12f. 

Hallucinations,  122ff.,  173ff. 

Healing,  Divine,  151ff.,  184ff. 

Heredity,  127. 

Holiness  Movements,  217. 

Hughes,  Thomas,  259. 

Hunter,  J.,  162f. 

Hygiene,  Physical  and  Mental,  88, 

94,  203. 

Hymnology,  219ff. 
Hypnotism,  128ff.,  144ff.,  164ff. 

Illusions,  173. 
Imaginary  Diseases,  180. 
Intellect,  37,  114ff.,  218f.,  246. 
Intellectual  Difficulties,  58ff. 

James  W.,  215. 

Jesus  the  Christ,  201ff.,  204,  206, 
221,  242f.,  256ff. 

Lancaster,  E.  G.,  13,  35,  40. 

Lateau,  Louise,  201. 

Leuba,  J.  H.,  13, 106f. 

Levy,  A.,  115. 

Liebeault,  169, 172. 

Lotze,  H.,  231. 

Lourdes,  189. 

Love,  Christian  Principle  of,  206. 

Lowell,  J.  R.,  228,  247. 

Mariolatry,  240. 

Mather,  Increase  and  Cotton,  142. 

Men  and  Women  (see  Sexes). 

Mental  Healing,  156ff.,  164ff.,  174ff. 

Mesmer,  155. 

Methods   of    Studying   Religious 

Phenomena,   llf.,  109  (see  also 

Scientific  Method). 
Minifitrv  and  Mission  Work,  81ff. 


Miracles,  186,  200ff. 
Moll,  A.,  129. 
Morbid  States,  70,  73ff. 
Motor,  Automatisms,  124f. 
Muller,  J.,  162f. 
Mystics,  141. 

Neo-Platonists,  141. 
Nerve  Fatigue,  71ff.,  93,  98. 
Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  181. 
Nietsche,  F.,  106,  248,  257. 

Oberammergau  Passion  Play,  257. 

Pedagogy,  Religious,  61, 69, 87, 96ff. 

Perez,  115. 

Philosophy,  6,  22,  52. 

Physical  Correlations  of  Religion, 

47,  52,  65f.,  71,  92ff.,  100. 
"  Power,"  The,  141ff. 
Prayer-Meeting  Songs,  229ff. 
Psychology  of  Religion,  5,  llff., 

lOOff.,  104,  247,  252. 
Puberty,  33ff.,  41,  96ff. 

Questionnaire,  13ff.,  109,  126,  261, 

272. 
Queyrat,  F.,  115. 

Religious  Awakening,  29ff. 
Religious  Experience,  104ff.,  139f., 

143f.,  252,  261. 
Religious  Instinct,  54,  244. 
Revival  Methods,  6, 12. 
Ribot,  Th.,  115. 
Romanes,  G.  J.,  241. 

Sainthood,  208ff. 

Saints,  141. 

St.  Vitus's  Dance,  141. 

Sanctification,  45f.,  217. 

Science  and  the  Supernatural,  16. 

Scientific  Method,  5,  12,  lOOff.,  138, 

197. 
Sensibility,  120. 


278 


INDEX 


Sex  and  Religion,  33,  94ff. 

Sexes,  The,  41,  236ff.,  244,  253ff. 

Sibyls,  141. 

Smith,  G.  A.,  104. 

Sorrow  for  Sin,  50ff. 

Spiritual  Exercises,  214ff. 

Spirituality,  205ff. 

Starbuck,  E.  D.,  13,  40,  41,  45,  50, 

58,  95,  107f.,  237f. 
Stein,  G.,  132. 

Suggestibility,  128ff.,  138ff.,  181. 
Suggestion,  141, 144ff .,  156ff.,  173ff ., 

200ff. 

Supernatural,  16,  102. 
Swedenborg,  142. 

Tarantism,  141. 


Temper,  Bad,  89ff. 
Temperament,  107f.,  114ff.,  138ff., 

206ff.,  243,  272. 
Temptations,  89ff. 
Theology,  6,  22,  62,  64, 113f. 
Trances,  141ff. 
Tuckey,  C.  L.,  157, 169. 
Tuke,  D.  H.,  155,  163f.,  192. 

Visions,  141ff.,  177. 

Wesley,  J.,  106f.,  141f.,  146. 
Will,  The,  38, 120,  258. 
Witchcraft,  152f. 
Women  and  Men  (see  Sexes). 
Wundt,  W.,  114. 

Zola,  E.,  189. 


279 


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